


Blood, Chicken and your Number please

by Ki-chang (legendofthedwelf)



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Blood Magic, Blood and Injury, Changkyun is a gentleman, Changkyun is infatuated, Changkyun is trying his best and so am I, Fighting, Flirting, Getting to Know Each Other, Kihyun came to have a good time and honestly he’s feeling so attacked right now, Kihyun deserves a fucking break, M/M, No romance (yet), Not a lot though, Sharing Clothes, Texting, Vampire Changkyun, Vampires, Worldbuilding, Wound treating, also he’s thinking way too much, also slightly feral changkyun, bamf changkyun, changki rise, changkyun is the mvp for keeping it all together, exchanging numbers, freaking out, kinda accidentally tbh, mutual attraction but nothing happens bc Kihyun needs a fucking hospital, nightclub but it's not the focus, protective changkyun, protective friends, slightly open end, smoking but it's like three sentences, they’re both flustered and awkward and cute and it’s adorable, this has turned into a sick fic, vampire instincts, vampire lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27303889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legendofthedwelf/pseuds/Ki-chang
Summary: It’s Halloween night and some lowlife scum has decided to take over Changkyun’s club. He isn’t pleased in the slightest, especially since an innocent pretty human and some cursed magic is involved. The situation becomes very bloody very quickly and he finds himself struggling to make sure that the pretty human doesn’t die, all the while fending off his own hunger and instincts. And two group chats that are hellbent on not making his life any easier.
Relationships: Im Changkyun | I.M/Yoo Kihyun
Comments: 16
Kudos: 66





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Officially the longest fic I’ve ever managed to write so far, yay. I really wanted to write vampires changki, and couldn’t really decide which one to write first, and settled on vampire Changkyun in the end. This has kinda spiraled out of control a bit, as it was never planned to get this long and to even go into this direction. As it is, I already have a continuation wip for this, but it’ll probably take quiiite some time until I manage to write that.  
> This is a full story that I split into three chapters so that I don’t lose sight of plot and structure, and because I think it’s easier to read like this. 
> 
> Happy Halloween, though this is only a Halloween fic in the sense that it starts on Halloween night lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings are blood? It’s getting quite bloody, because, vampires. Also violence as in two dudes are fighting. Freaky blood magic manipulation stuff but it gets taken care of really quickly

  
  


Humans are fascinating when you’re not one of them.

Changkyun has heard it from Turned so many times:  _ “My life was so dull and boring before now.” “I’m glad I’m not restricted anymore.” “There is so much more to life when you don’t have to be afraid of dying!” “Knowing you’re at the top of everyone in the room, untouchable - now that is power.” “I’m free!” _

Having known what it's like to live a human life is probably what makes vampirism seem like a fantastical dream that has become reality, he guesses. After all, he really hasn’t met one Turned that wanted to go back to their  _ dull, boring, human life. _

As a natural born vampire, he doesn't really have an opinion on it. Every living creature has limitations they have to abide by, and vampires are no different than humans in that regard, so he doesn’t fully understand what is so much greater about the life of the Undead. Living off blood, avoiding the sun because it makes him dizzy and he get gets sunburnt annoyingly fast, making sure he has explicit permission to enter a house before coming in (which is actually a neat little detail barely known to the general public). While Turned are much more affected by the "vampire rules", their skin getting burnt almost immediately in the sun and not being able to enter human's homes without being invited in, natural born don't adhere to  _ such _ mundane workings of the universe. They could come and go how they please if they  _ wanted _ to, though, for Changkyun, he decided early on that he doesn't quite like the strange pressure in his chest with the somewhat guilty feeling of breaking the barrier of respect between host and guest. 

It's… not polite. And he may get sneered at for it by Turned, not that he actually gives a shit about what those lowly arrogant creatures think of him, but he has been raised with manners and manners he shall show to those that deserve it. 

Which, definitely, isn't the lot that thought it a good idea to intrude upon  _ his _ cherished club in  _ his  _ territory, no matter how small it is. 

He isn't proud to admit it, but it took quite some time until he heard about the lowlife making him look bad in his own turf. He had been cooped up in his apartment, reading all kinds of medical books that Jooheon had almost thrown at him the moment he had expressed interest in the field. It has become a priority for him after Hyunwoo had stirred up their little circle of friends by panicking about the human he had last fed off fainting after he was done, and Jooheon had been the one making sure at least one of them knows enough about human biology to prevent them from having any sudden deaths on their hands. 

Hyunwoo, though a Turned older than Changkyun and certainly not a fledgling anymore, has pretty much forgotten everything about being human that there is, and Changkyun himself has spent most of his young life time reading one book after another about quantum theory and mathematical history and space conspiracy theories. Not much knowledge of humans to be found there. 

They’re an odd duo like this, very much non-threatening to one Lee Jooheon even if it took several weeks to make him believe them. Made even odder by the fact that Changkyun is the youngest of them age wise but the most powerful being among them at the same time. 

A powerful but young vampire apparently seems like an appropriate target for scum who deem themselves having the right to rule over the city.

Surprisingly it was Jooheon who had informed him about the situation at his club. He had run into Elhae by chance who had asked him how to contact Changkyun because the situation is dire and the "damned vampire wouldn't pick up his fucking phone man!" The singer had been thrown out during his gig two days ago, the monthly gig Changkyun had arranged for him at the club. Jooheon, human that he is, generally tries to stay away from Changkyun's territory for his own sake, unless he is accompanied by Changkyun or Hyunwoo, so aside from what they tell him and what rumours spread, he doesn't know what's going on. With Elhae pissed off and worried though, he had storm rung Changkyun away from his self-created isolation and back into the reality that is his business quickly losing its prestige under the new unwelcome management.

And Changkyun is pissed.

Not as pissed as Elhae though. 

And yes, Changkyun feels incredibly guilty for missing his gig and thus this entire situation even existing, because he had been entirely too fascinated by how human blood works, and again forgot to put his phone on at least vibration, and while Elhae tried to reach him he had been rolling around on his couch, feeling parched for the red substance but also unable to tear his eyes away from the book. 

He was able to placate the singer with the promises of lots of drinking dates and music talks and a more individualized stage, all while Jooheon had been angrily smug about someone else berating him about his phone habits (“See, it’s not an “us problem”, Im Changkyun, everyone’s pissed that you always have your phone on silent and never check your messages, do fucking better, dude!”). Changkyun also managed to placate him with drinking dates and music talks and cat-sitting days (because Jooheon has a lot of fun watching his cats being strangely infatuated by the vampire and Changkyun trying to stay loyal to his love for dogs). 

So, here he is now, on Halloween, a Saturday evening, outside of  _ his  _ club, intending to take care of this problem. Alone. No way would he take Jooheon and Elhae with him, even though they both offered to back him up, and Hyunwoo might be a Turned and older than him but Changkyun is still a natural born vampire. And as one he is stronger, faster,  _ superior  _ to any Turned and even Hyunwoo has to back down when he says so. 

So here he is now, sensing a lot of Undead walking around, way more than he is comfortable with being around the usual human crowd looking for a good time. One of the things he is known for is that he doesn’t like too many vampires and Turned in his turf, but also that there are barely records of humans being attacked or mysteriously waking up in alleys covered in bite marks and no recollections of how they got there. He is territorial but takes care of his small area well and he doesn’t cause problems but also doesn’t tolerate troublemakers. Which makes the current situation non-ideal because if word spreads around that the “I.M territory” has opened its borders things won’t end pretty, for anyone.

The worst thing is that he doesn't even  _ know  _ any of the Turned that are going in and out of his club. Some unknown scum managed to cause an uproar and throw Elhae out of his club with no repercussions whatsoever apparently and that fact gnaws at Changkyun's pride like a sewer rat. He feels guilty, and absolutely pissed, pushing his fake glasses further up his nose while he aggressively sucks at the cigarette in his mouth, the smoke burning through him. 

He had opted for a black leather jacket that's subtle enough to not draw unwanted attention on him, a deep red dress shirt that's unbuttoned to the middle of his chest, and black jeans that can just barely not be called skinny, hugging his thighs and calves nicely without making it look like he's trying too hard. His shoes are unassuming, black brand sneakers, comfortable and easy to run in. Overall, he's getting appreciative glances of humans and Turned alike but he doesn't look important enough to warrant directly speaking to him. His hair is down, silky black strands curling round the top of his round glasses. He knows how to hold himself to be just another bargoer looking for a great night, and he's partly hoping for the scum in his club to not know who the owner is, to be just as unknown to them as they are to him, to have that advantage. 

Another part of him wants them to know who he is, so he can show them just what kind of grave mistake they've committed by trespassing, forgetting their place, and overestimating themselves. To see the fearful realization in their faces that they shouldn't even have considered doing this. That the two days of Changkyun's absence they felt invincible in was the calm before the storm. 

Forcefully inhaling more smoke he tries to control himself, sweeping his eyes over the large crowd queueing up to be let in, briefly pausing on a human with fiery red hair and a sharp nose with an ever sharper jawline, before catching the eye of one of his employees who looks so delighted and relieved to see him the guilty feeling twists painfully in his stomach. Crushing the cigarette under his shoe he breezes over to him with supernatural speed, silent and unnoticed like a true predator of the night. 

**MX**

The situation luckily isn’t really dire, but mostly just incredibly  _ annoying _ . 

Wooki, the employee he has known the longest for he had been the first one working here, had filled him in on everything, including ghastly tales of the choice of music that played here for the last two days. Changkyun almost wants to apologize to every single one of his guests who had come here in that time, who had been subjected to this. 

Successfully sneaking into his own club through the employee’s entrance, Changkyun is met with several of his employees who look close to crying when they spot him. He is so used to Jooheon and Hyunwoo grilling him for an explanation whenever he “messes up”, as they like to call it (which is, rude) that he is temporarily struck dumbfounded that no one at his club asks for one from him. They bombard him with information, ask for guidance, want to know what they should do and how they can help, but nobody demands of him to explain himself. Which is a refreshing turn of events.

Of course, that brief self-satisfaction immediately morphs into guilt again when a girl he hired barely two weeks ago bursts into tears at the voice of a Turned that hollers for more beer. Wooki quickly takes the lead and instructs everyone to behave as usual, assuring the girl that he will take care of the Turned, all the while pushing Changkyun back out through the door with a respectful but nonetheless pleading 

“Please, hyung, gather your thoughts, process everything, and devise a battle plan.  _ Please. _ ” 

Changkyun leans against the cool alley wall, reminiscing all the information he gathered, going over the Turned his employees pointed out to him in his mind again and again so he won’t forget their faces and knows which ones to rip apart first.

He is seething with anger.

He is  _ this  _ close to burning the place to the ground.

Only his conscience and the fact that he owns the club and is actually quite fond of it keeps him from seriously considering this course of action.

He loathes what’s going on. The scum has managed in the two days he hasn’t been here to heavily decimate his stock of beverages and didn’t bother to restock, turning the supply schedule and organization completely on its head. His employees were treated like shit and the guests even worse, reckless partying without any finesse in the chaos having scared away a lot of his regulars, performing artists left with confusion and no leadership and a lot of harassment, especially the human ones. Wooki had called in the rest of the Coda Crew yesterday night (after another several unsuccessful tries of reaching Changkyun, rubbing that particular detail right into Changkyun’s already guilty conscience) for damage control, and they have done a very good job, but they were still up against Turned with no chance of winning. 

Changkyun might be young, only 24 years old, but he won’t use that as excuse for his lack of leadership for the current situation: he is a natural born vampire, he has built up his territory with this club together with the full responsibility that brings, and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t defend and take care of and bring  _ justice  _ to what belongs to him. Wooki has given him a good-natured teasing smile, but the relieved slump of his shoulders and the grateful bow showed Changkyun that the young human was truly glad he has arrived at last to help them make things right. 

Exhaling harshly he slides down into a squad, taking out the cigarette pack from his pocket and lights one, letting the smoke flow through him again. Smoking doesn’t do anything to him, perks of being undead he guesses, but the stupid human habit helps him calm down and think rationally. 

Just as he is fleshing out his plan in his mind, thoughts going from the floorplans of his club to the surrounding buildings and places to hide and ambush and smash faces into, movement across from him pulls him back into the alley, eyes sharply snapping up.

The backdoor of his club is slowly pushed open, too clumsily to be one of his employees and too carefully to be one of the Turned. 

It's the guy with the flaming red hair he has seen in the queue earlier. 

He’s looking a little lost, half-leaning out of the door frame to look left and right before deciding to step out, holding onto the door and then pushing it closed, not letting go until it clicks into place.

Probably already half-drunk, from how carefully he is moving. It relaxes the vampire a little, crushing the barely-smoked cigarette against the ground and taking a deep breath, surveying the human in front of him who has turned towards him but not come any closer.

He's wearing a simple form fitting low-cut black shirt that  _ just so _ falls over his hips with a sultry wine red vest above it, the combination miraculously not clashing that badly with his hair colour. What captures Changkyun's eyes though are the  _ very tight  _ black leather pants that cling to those muscular thighs like a second skin. And sure, this guy is no Hyunwoo nor Jooheon, but,  _ damn.  _

The guy is also wearing dark brown wingtip shoes that for some unfair reason don't look stupid on him. 

Doing one last swipe from those shoes over his nice legs to his nice leather clad hips to his nice waist to that very buff looking nice chest to the nicely exposed collarbones that are accentuated by an artful array of thin silver chains, a delicate but sharp jaw, attractively red lips, sharp nose, pretty eyes-

Changkyun's lustful appreciation comes to an abrupt halt when he sees the guy's eyes. 

Dull. 

Empty. 

_ Lifeless.  _

There's an alarm going off in his head as he's immediately on alert again, his senses reaching out around him to check for danger, not letting the human out of his sight. He knows what drunk and shit-faced and wasted and high looks like, and this is definitely neither of those.

“Yo,” he extends as greeting, carefully staying crouched and lazily waving with one hand. The human stares at him for a bit.

“Hello,” is the surprisingly polite reply he is given, the guy’s voice deep but light, almost melodic, though he sounds as lost as his body language conveys. And, well. If Changkyun hadn’t seen the dullness of his eyes he definitely would’ve heard it in his voice. He can sense the personality behind it, hears a tone of playfulness but it’s all overshadowed by whatever is currently taking hold of him.

Because the human is definitely not in a natural state right now.

It makes Changkyun uneasy. Despite that, he needs to find out what’s going on, because with this turn of events, he might actually have two serious problems at hand now.

Still keeping his relaxed posture, he asks, “What’s your name?”

The human continues to stare at him, only the slight tilting of his head giving Changkyun the impression that he seems to be pondering whether he should reveal his name or not. 

“Yoo.”

For a long while the vampire stares back at him.

“You?” Changkyun asks in Korean.

“No. My name is Yoo.”

It takes a few more seconds until Changkyun feels his eyes widen as realization washes over him, unthinkingly letting out a loud “Aaaah!” that he quickly smothers into a carefully neutral expression. His ears feel hot but he’ll be damned if he allows himself to get flustered in front of a human that is clearly not himself right now. Even though he saw those eyebrows quirking up the slightest bit. Which he fully ignores. 

Pretending he isn’t feeling mortified at his own mistake he pushes himself up into a standing position, not coming any closer yet. 

“Nice to meet you, mister Yoo. I’m Changkyun.”

Introducing himself as Im would be too close to I.M, the name under which he operates in his territorium. And considering that his club is registered under I.M as well, as far as the public knows, he doesn’t want to take any chances tonight. The human seems harmless enough, blinking at him like it takes great effort to process the new information he’s been given (which is… worrying), but he rather be safe than sorry. 

The human squints his eyes suddenly, as if he is feeling dizzy, and then stumbles a little in place, looking like he doesn’t understand what this reaction even is. Changkyun takes a careful step closer, assumptions and theories immediately passing through his thoughts at lightning speed. One thought, one wild suspicion sticks with him but he refuses to acknowledge it.

"Hey, are you feeling alright?" 

It's clear that "Yoo" isn't feeling alright at all but he read in one of the medical books that if you want to help someone you should try to be calm and reassuring, so that you don't pose a threat and possibly make things worse. It's a little ironic since he's a vampire, but, the human doesn't know that. And he does want to help, after all, or at the very least figure out what's going on. 

Yoo squints his eyes to the ground and then rights himself, movements way slower than they would be even if he was just drunk or high or, hell, drugged. Changkyun takes another step forward, hands extended to his sides to show he doesn’t mean any harm, but he stops moving when Yoo looks at him again, brows furrowed the slightest bit.

“Are you also a vampire?”

Changkyun freezes. 

His thoughts running a mile an hour and his plan rearranging itself all over again.

A vampire.

A  _ fucking vampire  _ has infiltrated his turf. 

His fangs pulse with hunger as anger rushes white-hot through him, fingers itching to slash and tear and rip.

The human in front of him tethers him just so to the situation at hand, preventing him from going off on a bloody rampage. 

Barely controlling his voice, he presses out:

“What do you mean, a vampire?” 

Yoo blinks slowly.

“I came with one.”

Not good. Not good at all.

“And where are they now?”

Yoo opens and closes his mouth a couple of times, eyebrows currently the most expressive feature on his face and Changkyun laps up every single twitch and furrow, watching him like a hawk.

“I… “

A pause that’s too damn long.

“In…side… I think.”

“Okay. Why are you with a vampire?”

Yoo’s entire face twitches, as if he wanted to grimace but his muscles didn’t comply. He shakes his head, slowly. 

“Did you know about vampires before tonight?”

He shakes his head again, a little faster, hair not moving (how much hairspray did he put in). 

“And you’re just… okay with knowing about them now?”

Yoo’s hands twitch. His dull eyes swish from one side to another, lips pinched in a way that is the most expressive Changkyun has seen him so far, looking like he desperately wants to say something, do anything, but he can’t, like something is holding him back, and the wild suspicion from earlier rushes back into his head except that now it seems like a very plausible and horrible reality. 

Yoo inhales.

“I… I’m, not. Not… okay.”

Changkyun comes closer, body tensed all over.

“Did he do something to you?”

The human looks at him with those pretty,  _ horribly dull and lifeless _ eyes.

Changkyun takes anothers step forward and reaches for Yoo’s right wrist, the one with no accessoires on it, to feel his pulse, to check whether his suspicion could actually, horrifyingly, be correct.

Yoo doesn’t move away, doesn’t stop him, probably can’t stop him at this point, but as Changkyun is gently searching for his pulse point (not that he has ever done it before, but he knows where it is supposed to be. From drawings and graphics), there’s an intake of air next to him followed by the clearest words he has heard all night from the human:

“Please. Don’t touch me.”

He immediately lets go and moves back.

“I’m sorry, Yoo, I don’t want to hurt you. But I need to check your pulse, I might know what’s going on with you, okay? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but--”

Changkyun trails off because the human is looking at him with impossibly wide eyes.

“You… stopped...”

“... yeah?”

“He… the other, he… didn’t. Didn’t stop, just… went… ahead and… and…“

Changkyun is going to make sure that vampire will experience the most painful death the vampires and Turned of the 21st century have ever seen.

“What.” He growls, not coming closer but the rage simmering under his skin making him temporarily forget that the human is in a very fragile state and he needs to keep it together. “What did he do to you.”

“Kihyun.”

Once again the human derails all of his thoughts.

“ _ Huh? _ ”

“Me. I. Kihyun.”

Yoo, no,  _ Kihyun  _ (a pretty name for a pretty human, Changkyun shut up and  _ focus _ ),  _ Yoo Kihyun _ stares at him intensely, almost desperately, like he  _ needs  _ Changkyun to understand what the significance of him telling him his name is. 

And luckily Changkyun is smart and _fast_ to understand in important situations. 

“I won’t hurt you. And I will find the one that did this to you, and help you,” he says as earnestly as he can, “I promise,  _ Kihyun. _ ” 

Kihyun’s shoulders slump a little, relieved. And then his knees give out and Changkyun dives forward with a curse just in time to catch him. 

Carefully he lowers him to the ground, legs bent in a way that can’t be comfortable but something else has a higher priority right now. 

“You…  _ are _ a vampire, then…?” 

“…yes. But I am not like him. You can believe that.” 

Kihyun’s entire face has become slack, eyes showing no sign of emotion, blood pumping very slowly through his body. Changkyun mumbles an apology as he carefully touches along his forearms, clenching his jaw as he finds four small puncture wounds that have almost completely healed on his left arm, the skin feeling slightly cooler than on his right arm.

Damn vampire blood. 

“Kihyun,” he says, rolling the name around his tongue, heart sinking as the human just barely moves his head, staring blankly ahead.

“The vampire you came with bit you, hadn’t he?” 

A miniscule nod.

“He infected you with his blood. It’s been slowly taking hold of you, merging with your human blood and taking it over, suppressing your emotions and thoughts. It’s magic, in a way, freaky and powerful and disgusting.”

Kihyun doesn’t respond at all and Changkyun isn’t sure he even registers what he is telling him, but he needs him to know anyway. Needs to have himself say it out loud, so he can process it, process that this is very much real and he needs to act fast if he wants to save this human.

After he looked Kihyun over as respectfully as he could, he heaves him up, noting that his chest is indeed very buff and his body in general is very well taken care of, and leans the human against the wall, silently apologizing for appraising him when he’s in such a vulnerable state. Kihyun sits secure, posture straight and steady, but it’s obvious that he is not behaving like a human right now at all. Seeing him blankly staring into space has Changkyun’s blood boiling hotter, but in that moment Wooki opens the door again, earning himself a piercing stare.

“Wooki, is there a boss, someone the Turned take orders from?” 

Changkyun isn’t someone who enjoys using the power his position grants him. He is serious and professional when it comes to territory matters and taxes regarding his club, but he would never hold his power over his employees or abuse it for his own gain, if he doesn’t have a good reason for it. He doesn’t like being particularly domineering or superior, mutual respect and a common sense of decency will forever be more important to him. 

Now though, he is  _ livid.  _ To the point where he can barely control his rage and  _ just so _ manages to not snap at the younger man. Luckily, Wooki takes it in stride and without asking questions.

“I think so, yes, there is a man who is particularly gleeful when the Turned harass the customers and manage to chase them out.”

“Any signs that he could be a vampire?”

The human quickly looks into his eyes, shock evident on his face, and Changkyun can practically watch him think and revue the past days.

“Yes… yes that could be possible, it would actually make a lot of sense, oh geez…” 

Changkyun tunes out Wooki’s mumbling and shrugs off his leather jacket as he turns towards Kihyun again. His heart skips in anger at his lifeless eyes and he knows he can’t waste any more time now. Carefully he lifts the human away from the wall and drapes the jacket over his head so his red hair is completely covered, slowly bringing him back into his original position. He hopes this will keep away curious eyes and, with a silent promise that he will fix this, gets back onto his feet. 

“Is he here tonight?”

Wooki audibly swallows a gasp at the poorly concealed rage in his voice, but his own voice is steady and firm, proof that he has known Changkyun long enough by now to know that the vampire would never harm him.

“I’m sure I have seen him in the crowd tonight.”   
“Bring me to him.” 

Wooki hesitantly darts his eyes to Kihyun.

“Have someone watch over him. We need to find the vampire, to fix both his and our problem.”

“Yessir.”

**MX**

His employees sneak him through the kitchen into the main area, into a crowd of his regulars who point him towards the slightly alleviated VIP seats in front of the stage, where a bunch of Turned crowd around a guy with dirty blond hair, all greasy with too much hairspray keeping it in place. Dull brown cargo pants and a suit jacket two sizes too big on him. One of the humans whispers to him that all of the Turned, even though they are being subtle about it, report to this guy. And apparently he’s also responsible for the change of music.

Changkyun observes the situation for a moment longer. Once he is shown someone specific, someone he can give his entire attention and focus to, it is easy to identify the man in front of him, the man that had been by Kihyun’s side when he first spotted him in the queue, as a vampire. It’s barely noticeable to humans, based on instinct for Turned, but natural born vampires can recognize each other with no problem, as long as they properly  _ look.  _ And oh, he is looking thoroughly tonight. 

The other vampire throws a beer bottle onto the stage, where one of the pole dancers who had requested of him to let them perform in his club is close to tears, holding onto the pole for dear life. 

Changkyun is done waiting.

Approaching the vampire, the Turned surrounding him react first, blocking his way with mocking words falling from their arrogant lips. Changkyun just lets them sneer and boast, eyes never leaving the only being in this room that could actually seriously harm him. 

The guy tilts his head and locks eyes with Changkyun.

His expression shows boredom.

Then confusion.

Then disbelief.

And then, finally, 

_ Fear. _

The beast inside Changkyun roars in delight at the sight.

And Changkyun is, seriously,  _ done waiting _ .

He doesn’t wait for further reactions, doesn’t have neither the patience nor the will to hear what sniveling words the scum in front of him has to say. Changkyun grabs him by the neck and hauls him over to the kitchen, to where the door to the back alley is.

To where Kihyun is.

He’s going to end this now once and for all. 

The door barely stays fixed on its hinges as Changkyun throws the other vampire through it. No that he pays it any mind. Someone is talking to him, but he doesn’t know nor care if it’s his employees or the Turned or the trash getting back up on his feet in front of him. There’s a red haze around him, his fangs pulsing with every throb of white hot anger that courses through him.

The vampire opens his mouth, eyes feverish with anger and fear. Changkyun seizes him by the arm and hurls him into the wall.

It feels so  _ very satisfying.  _

The back alley is filled with the sounds of the vampire groaning and cursing, and he manages to quickly take a few steps back when Changkyun advances on him again.

“Tch, urgh, so it took two days of me claiming what’s yours for you to finally show your face, huh?”

Changkyun glares. The vampire has the guts to smirk.

“I’ve heard rumours, but you’re really a young vampire. A baby, pretty much, and babies shouldn’t go around owning night clubs--!”

Changkyun tackles the vampire back into the wall, slams his fist into his side with a satisfying  _ crack. _ But this time the guy is prepared and manages to snag a hand into the younger’s hair, twisting them around and slamming him into the wall as well. The strength behind the impact is enough to dent and crack the wall, a few bricks falling to the ground. Changkyun ignores the dull throbbing in his head and shakes off his now broken glasses, regaining his footing with ease and turns back around to his enemy.

He doesn’t miss the audible gulp the other vampire makes when his eyes fall onto him again.

“It’s an insult just to share the same air I breathe with some vermin like you.”

“You think you’re so much greater than me, huh?! You’re hundreds of years too early to fight against adults, kid!!”

Changkyun knows he should take care of this as quickly and quietly as he can, avoid drawing this out and potentially risk onlookers seeing them and causing panic. While the existence of vampires and Turned isn’t a secret, there is barely common knowledge about them and he does want to prevent unwanted attention on himself as much as he can--

The other vampire takes a couple steps back and bumps into Kihyun, who is still sitting in the same place Changkyun left him, seemingly unbothered by what’s going on around him. The vampire looks surprised, and then begins to grin gleefully.

Something inside Changkyun snaps.

Only barely aware of himself doing it he charges forward, has just enough wits about himself to take the fight  _ away  _ from Kihyun, and flings the vampire into the opposite wall again. This time though, he doesn’t let up and hazardly throws one punch after another, hitting flesh and bricks in the same manner but he  _ can’t stop. _ Kihyun looking at him desperately, emotions horribly clouded by sick blood that doesn’t belong in his body flashes through his mind again and again, Kihyun not moving, not reacting, Kihyun looking like nothing less than a goddamn puppet…!

The other vampire manages to shove him off and stumbles back pathetically, collapsing to the ground with as much distance between them the narrow alley can offer. Changkyun is panting, eyes wild as they dart between Kihyun and the vampire.

“Tch, urgh, haha…” the vampire coughs, flinching when Changkyun throws him a deadly look but his ugly smirk stays on his face, “You’re trying to save some pathetic human? Ugh, how ridiculous. It’s already too late anywa--!”

The brick Changkyun throws connects with a sickening thud with the vampire’s skull, and even though blood immediately starts pouring out, the guy still continues laughing.

“Not much longer and I’ll be able to fully control the weak creature, and there’s nothing you can do about it, mister I.M!!”

“Shut the fuck up…” Changkyun mutters through gritted teeth, glancing to Kihyun who still stares numbly off into space, not reacting in the slightest to what’s going on around him. 

“You’ve already figured out what I’ve done to him, haven’t you?! So what do you plan to do now, young vampire!? Killing me won’t save him, surely you should know that much, right?! It won’t free him!!”

_ Think, Changkyun, think! How does this magic work, how can you stop it, how can you  _ save  _ Kihyun!?!  _

“Wanting your turf back and beating me up for taking it in the first place, I can understand that. But saving a human? Just how pathetic are you! And you’re supposed to be a vampire?!”

_ It’s blood magic! Blood, he’s infected him with his blood. Blood, blood…! _

“Let me show you just how hopeless your endeavor here is! Watch!”

Kihyun’s arm twitches. 

Changkyun stares in disbelief.

_ No. _

With growing horror he sees Kihyun’s limbs move in a decidedly inhuman manner, standing up on wobbly legs. Like a string doll that got its strings all tangled and someone tries to make it move despite that. 

“It will require some practice, but as you can see, I have a perfectly personal docile puppet now. The only thing humans are good for, hah!”

“No…!”

“Face it, kid, you can’t break this magic. I’ll give you back your club but this human is mine now. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

_ Blood. _

A thin black string hovers in the air, from Kihyun’s arm to the blood that is dripping from the vampire’s head.

The craziest, most risky plan forms in Changkyun’s mind.

“Then I suggest you do it.”

But his plans always work.

For the most part.

Channeling his anger and frustration he darts over to the vampire and punches him in the face before he can react. To his relief, that causes the connection to break and Kihyun slumps back into the wall. The other vampire uses Changkyun’s momentary distraction to punch him in the stomach,  _ hard,  _ but Changkyun pays the pain no mind and grabs him by the neck, similar to earlier, and hauls him over to Kihyun.

Ignoring the confused and panicked shouts of the creature between his fingers, he takes Kihyun’s arm with the puncture wounds and, with a silent apology to him, slams the vampire’s teeth right into them.

_ Vampire blood is poisonous to the vampire it comes from. And we might be naturally immortal but we  _ can  _ die. _

It’s a gamble Changkyun doesn’t intend to lose.

He tunes out the sounds of the trash in his hand gagging and choking and focuses his wild eyes on Kihyun. Kihyun, who is pressed into the wall in a way that can't be comfortable, with a vampire chomping at his arm and bleeding him, and yet his face remains impassive, body not even twitching as he slowly becomes paler and paler. And Changkyun grits his teeth, frustration and panic making his fingers almost crush the skull in between them, because he didn't go through all this trouble just to have this stupid human die on him-- ! 

A quiet whimper escapes Kihyun’s pale and chapped lips and he rips the vampire off the human's arm, flinging him with no care into the opposite wall again and catches Kihyun as his legs give out again. 

His pulse is shallow and slow and barely  _ alive. _

Changkyun feels his own blood boiling, hears it rushing in his ears, tastes how his fangs scrape at his tongue. Senses his own dormant magic reacting to his fury.

“Remove your remaining blood from his veins if you value your pathetic life.”

The vampire whimpers amidst his gurgles, the pain of his poison twisting his face into a horrible grimace. 

Changkyun doesn't threaten people. He finds no joy in aggressively exerting dominance like this. 

**_"Do it."_ **

He has never felt so fueled by wrath and disgust as he is now, and it's only Kihyun's sluggishly beating heart skipping a beat that keeps him from tearing the vampire from limb to limb in a glorious bloodbath. 

He doesn’t exactly know how the magic works, never bothered to study this particular power he was born with for he finds it utterly despicable, but he knows the feeling of the air moving when a spell is lifted. With sick fascination, he watches vampire blood gather around the wound in Kihyun’s arm and then slowly floating back to the source. It’s a lot, more than he had even feared had accumulated in the human’s body, and it fuels the fury in his chest even more, tempting him to slice the other undead creature up and pierce him on a wooden stick for all his underlings to see. As if he could hear his murderous thoughts the vampire whimpers, the blood splattering all over the ground as he tries to extract it as fast as possible, whimpering pathetically all the while. 

Changkyun senses the human’s blood being freed, already starting to flow faster to try and fill all the empty space but it’s been deplenished the entire evening and the heart gives a sluggish attempt at beating faster before skipping to a miniscule halt, trying to figure out what is going on and why things aren’t working the way they should.

Changkyun can feel the body in his arms flinch, the first genuine reaction he has seen from him ever. Then, a quiet gasp, and another, a painful sounding dry cough and a whimper near his chest. Looking down, he sees exhausted eyes staring horrified at the vampire writhing in agony across them, a tremble in those slim shoulders as Kihyun, with great effort, directs his gaze above, into Changkyun's eyes that have never left him. 

A thousand questions, terror, confusion, and a flash of relief, before those beautiful eyes fall closed and the body sags completely into his arms like a doll that had his strings cut. 

Changkyun takes two seconds to hug him close, before lifting him up in his arms bridal style. 

One of his employees bursts through the backdoor, Wooki, fending off some Turned with annoyed grunts, but they all skid to a stop at the scene before them.

Changkyun, gently cradling a passed out Kihyun in his arms, dips his shoe into the grimy puddle of vampire blood and shoves it into the mouth of the pitiful creature at his feet, staring him down with cold eyes as he gags and tries to plead and chokes on the toxic that is his own blood. 

He doesn’t have to look at the Turned to know that they are frozen in place, terror pinning them down and not letting them run. He keeps grinding his shoe into the blood and then the scum’s mouth until his sounds of agony have quietened down into hazy mumbles, the toxic eating at his veins. 

He won’t die, if he gets help quickly enough. Probably. 

“If you know what’s good for your pathetic hides…” the deep rumble of his voice crackles through the still night air, deceptively calmly spoken words loud in the alley, “…you will never come back here again or try to besmirch something that belongs to me. Humans, vampires, etablissements, the very dirt you dare to walk on.” 

Casting one last disdainful look at the Turned that have gone as pale as sheets of paper, he steps away from the choking creature on the ground and approaches Wooki. Scrambling to their master or boss or whatever he is to them he hears them try to take him away as quickly as possible, Wooki kicking a few in the ass before giving him a smirk and a tattooed thumbs up. Changkyun exhales soundlessly.

“We can take care of the rest, don’t worry. You make sure this guy here is okay.” 

Ignoring the teasing but fond lilt of the younger’s voice, respect and awe underlining his posture and words nonetheless, he nods gratefully and meets the reverent eyes of a couple other employees who have gathered in the doorway, nods again, and then dashes off towards his apartment.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fighting scene is something I’m half proud of and half cringe at this since this is my first time writing something like this. The villain is a typical comic book one and I’m both sorry and not


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changkyun brings Kihyun home and tries his best to make sure he doesn’t die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changkyun is trying his very best to take care of their wounds but he is neither a doctor nor human and his only medical knowledge stems from books, so there isn’t really a lot of proper procedure to be found here. He's trying his very best

  
  


It barely takes any time at all to arrive at his home. He might’ve used a little of his magic, vampiric supernatural speed not a total myth but also not quite reality either. He unlocks the front door easily, balancing Kihyun with one arm. The entire way home his thoughts have been circling around how every human is as light as a feather to him, but Kihyun is built and strong, and even though he looks small in his arms they are the same height, and Kihyun would probably be able to lift him as well. He has never been more grateful to arrive at his apartment so he can finally focus on something else, his ears flaring red whenever he adjusts his hold on Kihyun and the human's chest brushes against his own. 

He definitely saw too much blood today, for someone who hasn't fed in weeks, with how his thoughts constantly derail. 

Firmly locking the door behind them, he takes a moment to gather himself and lose some of the tension in his body. He got rid of the vermin in his club, and he can trust his employees with the maintenance and care of their guests. He needs to let Hyunwoo and Jooheon know how it went, needs to contact Elhae and tell him he dealt with the problem, but for now, he can allow himself to calm down and concentrate on what he brought home tonight. 

The human is a firm weight in his arms. Changkyun can hear his blood pumping, slow and staggering but pumping all the same. Shallow puffs of breath hit the side of his neck where Kihyun’s face is tucked away.

He subtly adjusts his hold on him but accidentally jams one of Kihyun's arms into his stomach. Pain blooms from where the other vampire has punched him, and with a groan he leans against the wall. 

There’s a hitch in Kihyun's breath when Changkyun accidentally jostles the injured arm carefully situated atop his stomach. He can't see the wound with how the leather jacket covers Kihyun's upper body as best as it can, but he knows he needs to treat it as soon as possible. His gut clenches when he remembers that it's due to his own reckless action that Kihyun's arm is probably completely torn up, and, ignoring his own pain, he beelines towards his room so he can put him on his bed. 

A small, pained whimper sounds from Kihyun when he lowers him down as gently as possible, and, already dreading what he might see, he carefully peels the leather jacket away. 

The smell of blood envelops all of Changkyun’s senses. Instinctively, something he has forcibly driven into himself for the sake of keeping Jooheon safe, he gets up and away from Kihyun, tries to put enough distance between them so he can breathe and  _ think _ , but the action makes him stumble, his thoughts fogging over with pain and thirst. Ignoring his own wounds is both a blessing and a curse; they distract him from the fresh blood that pumps through the human's body, but also makes him hunger for it all the more. 

He doesn’t realize that he has been staring at the four deep, ugly puncture wounds, at the flesh that has been ferally ripped apart, at how steadily blood oozes out of Kihyun’s arms for far too long, not doing a damn thing. 

This is bad.

Swallowing, he rips his eyes away and scrapes his fangs on the inside of his cheeks, picturing the other vampire groveling on the dirty ground and choking on his blood. He forcefully clamps his thirst down. This is not the time. He is here to help, he  _ wants  _ to help. 

Not thinking, because if he thinks for even a second too long he might do something he will regret, he turns on his heel and noisily bolts out of his bedroom towards the bathroom. Noise, noise is good, noise is distracting. 

He makes a ruckus getting a bucket and filling it with warm water, mutters to himself mathematical formulas as he looks for all the medical supplies he bought in bulk after having read the first couple pages of one of his medical books. In a Big Brain Moment he looks for a mask that will hopefully keep the scent of blood partially away from him, but his patience is already growing thin as it is so he abandons that idea after he had torn through all of the cabinets in his bathroom. He does notice his busted up hands and washes them quickly, not willing to risk his own blood coming into contact with Kihyun's when he had just freed the human from one vampiristic power. 

He's a mess, completely fucked when he gets ready to return to Kihyun with a couple towels in hand and his pulse skips a beat in anticipation. 

_ Imagine it's Jooheon. Imagine it's Jooheon laying on your bed, weak and bleeding out and just having survived being mind controlled by a natural born vampire. Hyunwoo would skin you if you, preacher of not attacking humans, lost your control in a situation like this. You don't want him to die. You don't want to be the one that killed him. Use that stupid supernatural focus of yours and get a fucking grip, Im Changkyun.  _

The mental lecture actually helps him with not losing his mind as he re-enters his bedroom and is once again assaulted full force with the smell of Kihyun's blood. He avoids looking at the wound as much as he can and sets all his supplies down next to the bed. Hesitating for a moment, he decides on opening a window first and putting on some music, just to help him stay focused and in control.

Wetting a small washcloth, he gingerly reaches for Kihyun's arm. His skin is cold, but the area around the wound is pulsing hot. He sets on cleaning up all the blood so he can see the full extent of the wound better and digs his fangs into his cheeks to hold himself back from bemoaning wasting the delicious, oh so delicious substance.

The wound looks awful, the skin an absolute ugly mess of deep scrapes and bruises and lacerations. Frowning in worry, he hopes it doesn’t scar. He hasn’t read about scarring and all that yet, only how to treat wounds and bandage them, and that knowledge is what he’s relying on. 

Cleaning the wound and applying salves, disinfectant and gauze is more calming than he had thought, and by the time he has neatly wrapped Kihyun’s arm he feels a lot calmer and collected than before. Taking advantage of the professional mindset he’s in, he sets on peeling the human out of his clothes and changing him into some of his own sleep wear. He’ll apologize for undressing him like that when he wakes up.

However, Changkyun still feels extremely bad about it. Getting Kihyun out of the vest and shirt is very complicated, as every small movement jostles his injured arm and Changkyun’s heart aches whenever Kihyun lets out a small pained whine. The tight leather pants are an even bigger nightmare. Not willing to test his mental endurance any more he throws his blanket over Kihyun’s hips and somehow manages to wrestle the damned pants down those wonderful legs without seeing or touching too much. The sleep pants and shirt luckily go on easily, and together with his socks and shoes and Changkyun’s leather jacket he deposits everything in the bathroom to be washed later. Blood is a bitch to get out.

With that settled, he gets some painkillers and a glass of water and brings it back to Kihyun. The human is still out cold, but he’s safe and warm in a bed and that’s hopefully enough for now. 

Changkyun sighs softly. He tucks the human in and pillows his injured arm by his side, and then just sinks down on the floor. 

It’s been a long night. He has people to text and damage control to do, and he should take a look at his own injuries, but for the moment, he simply stays there and listens to Kihyun’s blood flow.

**MX**

He got lost a little just listening to the music, and he got used to the smell of blood and something that probably is purely  _ Kihyun _ as well, so when he does finally heave himself up with a groan and steps out of the bedroom, he's hit with the neutral smell of the rest of his apartment. 

Going back in to check on Kihyun won't be getting any easier, even with the open window circulating the air. 

He quickly retrieves all his medical supplies, closing the bedroom door for the sake of his sanity, and sets up camp in the bathroom, wincing in discomfort when he raises his arms to pull off his shirt. He  _ is  _ aware of the pain, feels it too, but is also morbidly fascinated by it all. This is the first time he ever battled another vampire and got thrown around like he weighs nothing to the point of bleeding. If he didn't feel exhaustion settling into his limbs he'd be tempted to explore his wounds just to see how different his body is to Kihyun's. 

So with a sigh he reaches for the disinfectant Jooheon bought for him and gets ready to spray it all over his knuckles, just like he did with Kihyun's wound, beginning with the right hand that had at some point began to sluggishly bleed again.

He was not prepared for the vicious sting of it and instinctively bares his teeth in a hiss. Annoying. But, fascinating. 

The bathroom is soon filled with more hissing and cursing as he treats his hands and the head wound he had already forgotten about if it weren't for the numb pulsing that got stronger and stronger the longer he concentrated on all the points of pain on his body. 

It was while he was sulking into space and trying to spray more of the wound than his hair that he glances at the mirror and reels back slightly in surprise. 

His face is completely scratched up too from where it was smashed into the bricks, some deeper cuts trickling blood. 

"I look like a maniac," he says out loud with a half smile, chuckling slightly in disbelief. 

A dinging sound from the pile of clothes near the shower pulls him away from his fascination. 

Right. Their clothes. Dammit. 

Several more dings sound, and Changkyun realizes that he should've looked for a phone or wallet on Kihyun way sooner, just to check that the vampire bastard hadn't taken that from him as well. 

He is very, very astonished when he finds both in the back pockets of Kihyun's jeans, looking totally fine, and spends a couple moments trying to figure out how they fit into these tight tight pants without being annoying or restricting. 

Kihyun is a human full of surprises, it seems. 

He doesn't look at the phone, not willing to breach Kihyun's privacy even more than he already had. Setting it all a safe distance away he starts cleaning. Even though he hadn't had to deal with blood stained clothes in quite a while, he  _ is _ a vampire after all, he knows how to get them out. Though it's another exercise in keeping himself from mourning wasting blood  _ again.  _

After hanging everything up to dry (thoughts circling around how he washed off Kihyun's smell only to replace it with the smell of his own soap and detergent) he figures he should wash off Kihyun's smell and cologne off himself too. The hot water from the shower soothes his aching muscles but also lets his wounds flare back up. Annoying, fascinating, but also very tiring. 

Bandaging his hands is fun, but he doesn't know how he should handle the wound on his head and the bruise on his stomach, not to mention his busted up face, so he decides on ignoring those. It's more important to save his supplies for Kihyun anyway, and he'll probably heal a lot quicker too. 

He flops down on his couch in the living room with still damp hair, depositing Kihyun's belongings on the plush carpet in front of it, and even though he feels a little tired he grabs for one of his medical books from its stack and continues where he left off. 

**MX**

It's sometime in the morning, the sun light irritating Changkyun's eyes for the two hours it falls into his living room before it makes its way further east, when another round of dinging sounds pulls him away from how lungs work and how very grateful he is that smoking doesn't destroy him from within. Groaning, he bookmarks the page and stretches his limbs into all directions. Since his own phone is still in his bedroom, probably completely discharged because he had forgotten to take it with him and turn the music off, the source of nuisance has to be Kihyun's again. 

His friends or family or whoever is texting him must be worried, Changkyun muses, half his head hanging off the edge of the couch and just staring at the screen lighting up and going dark again. 

He should think about what he should do from now on. Kihyun's bandages need to be changed continuously, as do his own, probably, and he also needs to get water and food in him, somehow. Changkyun hasn't found a chapter on blood loss yet, but even if there's one it probably won't talk about how to treat vampire blood magic induced anemia. 

The phone dings again. 

Changkyun sighs. 

He should check on Kihyun first. 

Upon opening the door to his bedroom a wave of fresh air carrying the scent of Kihyun and blood hits him right in the face, making him stumble against the doorframe. 

Closing the door in the first place had been a very stupid idea, past Changkyun is an utter fool.

Kihyun looks, well. Very much not okay. His skin has taken on a greyish tone, his breathing is shallow and his heartbeat still sluggish, and Changkyun can sense blood seeping through the layers of gauze. 

He is totally not slightly panicking. 

Inching his way slowly into the room and poking at his phone left on the bedside table (predictably, it's completely dead), he stands in the flow of cool morning air from the window, clearing his nose from the smell of blood, and then does something he didn't do in quite a while: actively stop himself from breathing. 

He's a vampire - he doesn't need to breathe. But surrounding himself with humans for the past couple years, actively having humans as close friends and spending time with them, had made him adopt the habit of breathing, as unnecessary as it is, simply to fit in. It's a disguise as well, and by now it's an action he doesn't even have to consciously think of doing anymore. 

Going back to his natural ways (hah) doesn't require any effort, luckily, and even though he can still sense Kihyun's blood, not smelling and inhaling it anymore is a very welcome relief for his quest of taking care of him. 

It's not like he minds the smell of his blood. 

Changkyun, focus. 

He gets to work. Following the same procedure as during the night he prepares water and bandages and some salves and the disinfection spray, and ends up on his knees next to his bed again. He peels the gauze off as slowly and carefully as he can manage, wincing at the terrible state Kihyun’s arm is in, and carefully dabs away at the lighter scrapes surrounding the major wound. Every so often his eyes flicker upwards to the small changes in Kihyun’s expression, mostly frowns and winces, but the human doesn’t wake, so he tries to be thorough as quickly as possible. 

There’s a small whine when he uses the disinfectant and without thinking he gently shushes Kihyun, remembering how the stuff stings really badly, and cradles his arms like that will help make the pain go away.

He is so out of his element. He applies wound salve (how much is enough? He doesn’t know! He didn't freak out when he did this the first time for some reason!!) and gauze and wraps a fresh bandage around the arm, and after a while of contemplation he gets an extra pillow and carefully puts Kihyun’s arms on it. Despite him reacting to Changkyun treating his arm Kihyun has grown quiet again, still looking sickly and his eyebrows slightly furrowed, but his breathing is as even as it can be with still quite the significant amount of blood in his body missing.

Changkyun wishes he could do more. Instead, he tucks him in and gets another throw blanket to make sure he is warm and cozy (Hyunwoo told him once about how he remembers the feeling of warm blankets around his body when he was sick as a human, how comforting is was), and with a last sweep around the room, not fully acknowledging the rising feeling of hopelessness inside of him, he goes back to the living room and continues with his book in the late morning light. 

**MX**

It’s once again the dinging from Kihyun’s accursed phone that pulls Changkyun back into reality, the vampire blearily blinking into the dusky evening light of his living room, fangs aching in hunger. He had finished two books ever since laying down again, his mind alight with information while his body protests its neglect. There’s the faint pulsing in his head and stomach and beneath the bandages that are still around his knuckles he recognizes as his wounds healing, also serving as a reminder that, while way more resilient than a fragile human body, he still hasn’t fed in  _ weeks _ and everything that happened since yesterday night is starting to take its toll on him.

_ “Selfcare is the most important thing. How are you supposed to take care of others if you can’t even take care of yourself? A healthy helper is the best that can happen to a sick and injured person.”  _ One of his books said that, and while it does sound plausible, it also kinda sits wrong with him and makes him grumble. 

More dinging comes from Kihyun’s phone.

“Yes, curse you all, he’s currently unavailable…” he mutters, rubbing his eyes to dispel the floating medical terms and procedures from his mind and grabs the damn thing. 

He needs to check up on Kihyun again. Maybe his condition got better so he can silence whoever keeps ringing his phone. 

It takes him all the way to his bedroom to see Kihyun still looking the same as before, skin none of that healthy hue humans should have but his face slightly flushed, before the awareness of the situation hits him like a truck.

“Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuckkkkk, Changkyun you idiot you  _ absolute useless idiot! _ ” 

Yes, Changkyun should feed sometime soon but he has a human suffering from blood loss with a mauled arm in his bed that hasn’t gotten proper food or water in almost 24 hours which he completely forgot about and Changkyun thought that a simple bandage and some ointment could fix him up. 

“Jooheon will kill me, oh he will kill me if I tell him about this and Hyunwoo-hyung won’t come to my rescue because I’m just such an idiot-!!”

Kihyun groaning sluggishly interrupts Changkyun’s self-tirade and sweeps all his useless thoughts aside.

Food. Water. Sustenance of some kind, that’s important right now.

“You got this, you silly vampire, get a grip, you got this, this human depends on you right now.”

It’s happening in a blur, somehow. Changkyun brings a bottle of water to Kihyun and tries very, very carefully to sit him up and make him drink. He read about this, about how you can’t drink if you’re unconscious but he refuses to believe it (how do humans swallow then in their sleep? Jooheon doesn’t wake up with a mouthful of spit after all), and props the human up against his side while taking care to not jostle his arm too much.

“Okay, we can do this, I’m sorry for touching you again without you being aware of it, but this is necessary right now.” 

Changkyun rambles when he’s nervous. He doesn’t openly show that about himself, but it’s only him and Kihyun here right now, there’s no need for pretending.

As he’s fumbling to pour water into the glass, all the while arguing with himself back and forth whether drinking from the bottle would be easier or not, and wondering whether he should crush the painkillers into powder to dissolve in the water, a noise from Kihyun almost makes him spill everything over the floor.

“…Kihyun?”

Kihyun makes some kind of sound, his head lolling against Changkyun’s chest from where he slumped over slightly, and Changkyun can feel his warm and sweaty forehead through his shirt. 

“Oh, no no no no no…” he mumbles, panic creeping into his body, and arranges Kihyun against his headboard as upright as he can.

The human’s eyes are open, half-lidded and glassy, skin flushed and sweaty. 

“Kihyun? Kihyun, can you hear me? …hey?” 

There’s no verbal response, only the slight parting of chapped lips, and Changkyun has to catch him as he’s about to topple forward. 

Water. Now. 

Gently, and not thinking about the compromising position they’re in, Changkyun climbs over Kihyun and straddles him, carefully lifting his face by his chin and with his other hand pours a little bit of water into his mouth, hoping that he will swallow.

It goes slow, but he does.

“Good, that’s, really good oh I’m so glad this works, okay, Kihyun, I don’t know if you can hear me, but, you need to drink a little more, alright? Let’s go, I’m here, you’re not alone, you can do this.” 

Whether the pep talk is for Kihyun or himself, Changkyun isn’t sure, but he manages to make Kihyun drink two glasses of water when the human’s eyes flutter shut and he just so manages to not throw the glass to the floor in panic. 

He’s worried whether just water is enough, but it looks like Kihyun’s breathing has evened out a bit, so he carefully gets off him again and tucks him back into bed, checking the bandages and deeming them still alright to not change them yet, and then collapses on the edge of his bed.

He feels drained, both accomplished and anxious and worried all around, fangs itching at the proximity to a living being. He feels like a little fledgling all over again and groans into his hands, his own bandages tickling his nose.

He is determined to take care of Kihyun, to make sure he’ll be alright enough to wake up and eat a proper meal and for them to talk so he can explain things, but worry starts to seep into him. Kihyun’s phone dings again in his pocket, reminding him that there are people out there probably worried sick about the human in his bed and he groans louder, takes the damn thing and puts it on his night stand in exchange for the water bottle, and chugs. 

Changkyun sinks back down on his bed and stares at Kihyun for a long while. Watches how his chest slowly rises and falls, traces the slope of his nose and his lips with his eyes, the arch of his strong eyebrows that are furrowed ever so slightly. How his bright red hair fans out on the pillow, framing his face and contrasting against his skin.

He has never seen such a pretty human before. Objectively speaking, everyone is pretty, Jooheon is really pretty too, but Yoo Kihyun is like no one Changkyun has seen before. Even ignoring his nice physique and very nice fashion sense, Changkyun has trouble looking away from his face. The slope of his sharp jaw. His chin. Even his ears. 

He should probably stop looking at him so much.

His observation is abruptly interrupted by Kihyun’s phone screen lighting up once again. He reads the preview of the new panicked flow of messages until the screen automatically goes dark again, and makes a decision.

He feels a little guilty, but he would feel even more guilty if he just ignored the phone until Kihyun wakes up. What if his friends send out a search party? Involve the police? That can go very ugly very quickly. 

Taking a deep breath he reactivates the screen, noting with a sick feeling in his stomach that it doesn't have a code or anything.  _ Unprotected, laid bare, vulnerable _ . He slowly comes to regret not having killed the piece of shit back in the alley. 

There are over a 100 notifications in a group chat called  **Minhyukkie-LAG** , the name pulling a tired but amused smirk out of him. He knows barely anything about Kihyun, except how he is when he's blood controlled by a lowlife of a vampire, and his wide terrified eyes. But even lethargic he seemed to have a kind of wit and grace about him that Changkyun would love to see without restraints. 

The other three participants in the chat are called  **scamMIN** , **zeroWon** and  **muscle-hyung** .

Definitely interesting. 

Just as he is browsing through the angry and panicked messages, new ones flood in. 

**scamMIN** **  
** YOO KIHYUN FINALLY    
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN   
ARE YOU OKAY    
I SWEAR IF YOUR EXCUSE IS BECAUSE THE DICK WAS SO GOOD I WILL SKIN YOU   
ALIVE THE NEXT TIME I SEE YOU    
IT'S BEEN ALMOST 24 HOURS 

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Kihyunnie!   
Only the fact that it's you has kept us from contacting the police!    
What happened? Are you okay?! 

Changkyun feels incredibly awkward. 

Um, hi   
This is not Kihyun

He probably shouldn't just stop there but he tries to think of a way to break it to them that Kihyun has almost died and not look suspicious himself. 

**scamMIN** **  
** Who is this    
Where is Kihyun    
Why isn't he answering his phone 

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Where is Kihyun! 

Um, the date he had yesterday went really wrong   
I'm currently taking care of him   
He's at my home

**muscle-hyung** **  
** What do you mean his date went wrong?! Is he okay?? 

**scamMIN** **  
** Who are you 

The person called  **scamMIN** has gone from panicked messages to singular sentences and Changkyun knows he has to be careful now. 

Do you know who he went on that date with?

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Just some guy, right??    
Kihyun is a pretty good judge of character, if that guy had been bad he wouldn't even have agreed to this!!    
And he can defend himself!! 

**scamMIN** **  
** @muscle-hyung let me do the talking for now 

Shit. This person is very careful and very suspicious, and as nice as it is to know Kihyun has such a reliable friend, Changkyun has to think fast. 

**zeroWon** **  
** What's this about Kihyun being kidnapped? 

What. 

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Hyungwonnie, no!! 

**scamMIN** **  
** DON'T CALL HIS NAME 

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Min? 

**scamMIN** **  
** Nobody is calling anyone by their name right now got it    
We don't know what's happened to Kihyun and who the person with his phone is 

**zeroWon** **  
** Let me scroll up 

Well. This has taken an interesting turn. 

**zeroWon** **  
** So where is Kihyun right now? 

Resting   
At my place   
His date went bad as I said, he got roughened up quite a bit

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Does he need to go to a hospital??! 

Honestly? Yeah, Changkyun should've brought him to the hospital, since restoring blood isn't really something he is capable of. But there would've been a lot of uncomfortable and complicated questions involved and he really didn't want Kihyun to wake up after everything surrounded by people who can't explain anything to him. 

He also didn't want to let him out of his sight, at least until he could make sure he is alright. 

A totally normal protective instinct induced wish, nothing more. 

He doesn't want to lie to Kihyun's friends, but he's already toeing a thin line here and doesn't think him telling them the whole truth would help his situation right now. 

I would've brought him to one if he needed one   
He just needs rest

**scamMIN** **  
** Then we'll come and pick him up 

This person is insistent, and Changkyun feels tired. 

Let him rest, would you   
I promise you he'll be fine   
I won't do anything to him

**zeroWon** **  
** And how are we supposed to trust that? 

Shall I send you pics, like a creep?

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Yes!!!! 

**zeroWon** **  
** Yes. 

**scamMIN** **  
** Yes

A begrudging smile spreads across his face. He doesn't know any of these people but for some reason he's starting to feel endeared by them, and their fierce and weird protective side for Kihyun. 

He tries to not feel like a pervert taking pictures of Kihyun laying knocked out in his bed, looking haggard and pale, and instead contemplates slapping a filter on because he looks like a corpse and surely "muscle-hyung" will freak out and "Min" will crawl through the screen to throttle him. 

[pic]   
[pic]   
Here you go   
I've been changing his bandages regularly, don't worry

**zeroWon** **  
** Omg

**scamMIN** **  
** He looks fucking dead you asshole 

**muscle-hyung** **  
** KIHYUNNIE OH MY GOD!!!!! 

Yeah, these are exactly the reactions he had expected. 

Softly groaning out aloud he watches "muscle-hyung" and "Min" scream and spew insults at him, with the occasional scathing comment from "Hyungwonnie" (Hyungwon, probably), and sends a last text of "I need to try and get some food in him and change his bandages again, I'll update you later" before dropping the phone on his bed and burying his face in his hands. 

It's probably wishful thinking but he hopes Kihyun will be easier to deal with. He understands their reactions,  _ of course _ he does, he’d probably tear the entire city apart if he was in their situation. 

Hopefully that’s just his vampire nature speaking and these humans won’t actually do that.

Sighing, and with another check on Kihyun, he gets on his feet and stretches, and figures he should talk to Jooheon and Hyunwoo for advice.

It’s when he grabs his phone that he remembers that it died during the night and he hadn't contacted anyone ever since he said he's going to take care of things at his club.

Oh, his friends are going to be so furious. 

**MX**

Changkyun’s vow to stop looking at Kihyun so much is broken when in the early morning after his evening conversation with the  **Minhyukkie-LAG** group chat, the second day of him being in Changkyun's apartment, Kihyun bolts upright with a gasp loud enough that Changkyun hears it from the kitchen. 

The human is barely awake, his eyes unfocused and glassily staring off into space again, and he’s running a dangerously high fever. His pulse is fast even though his blood has barely replenished in just one and a half days, and it’s all enough for Changkyun to know that this is  _ bad.  _

He feels bad, but he ends up undressing Kihyun and wiping him down with a towel and warm water. Because while Kihyun indeed is as built as he suspected and his chest and thighs are to die for, his body is also in critical condition. Changkyun is too consumed with worry and determination to help him through this to appraise him for too long, and just to be safe, he chews up his lips and inner cheeks to keep himself in check.

He also finally takes off his own bandages, feeling very conflicted about the fact that his own hands are almost perfectly fine again while Kihyun's condition has just worsened. 

**MX**

Throughout the day Kihyun keeps jerking awake without really being awake, and every time Changkyun is by his side to try and calm him down as best as he can. Kihyun needs water and food more than ever now, and after simply risking making him drink some warm soup one time while he sat up in bed unseeing, Changkyun feels incredibly relieved that that works too. Kihyun still doesn’t seem to be aware of anything, though the tenseness in his weak body has started to dissipate whenever Changkyun rushes to him to calm him down.

The vampire tries his hardest not to read into that.

**MX**

Changing Kihyun’s bandages has become marginally easier. The blood flow has stopped but the wound is still quite open. The vampire has chosen to stuff several rice crackers into his mouth whenever he treats the wound, because the kernels would get stuck between his teeth and fangs and that sensation has proven to be a suitable distraction from his growing simmering bloodlust. Also the one time he had broken skin is too terrifying a memory to keep chewing up his mouth.

**MX**

The group chat has become the bane of Changkyun’s existence. He replies here and there with a basic status update about Kihyun but doesn’t let himself talk too much with them, still wanting to respect Kihyun’s privacy as best as he can. He just barely manages to keep them from calling the police after all. The problem is that even though Kihyun’s fever is slowly subsiding, he still jerks awake a lot, and the notification sound from his phone seems to have become the main culprit for that. 

If “Min” (who he had figured out is Minhyuk after Hyungwon hadn’t paid attention) wouldn’t grill him all the time about who he is and where he lives he would’ve shut the damn thing off already.

It's been two days since Changkyun brought him home and he had explained the situation to Jooheon and Hyunwoo, who were worriedly furious that he hadn't contacted them right after everything happened, but he also managed to keep them from barging into his apartment. At this point, he isn't quite so sure anymore why he refuses help from anyone. In the beginning he simply had wanted to respect Kihyun's privacy and have him recover in as stress-free an environment as possible, but something like pride and stubbornness has settled in his mind and not gone away. He can do this. He will care for the human. He saved him and will not allow anyone to tell him he's doing a shitty job at handling the aftermath (no matter how aware he is of his own incompetence). 

Jooheon is urging him to let them help him, to tell him all the details at least so they can help out from afar, and after a couple of hours of nagging from his two friends he finally caves. They tell him what to put into the soup and how to use the various pills and medical equipment he has stored. Hyunwoo offered to research vampire magic in the hopes of finding some spells that Changkyun can learn to use to help things along. Not that Changkyun believes there is anything like that, as peaceful as the coexistence between actual vampires and humans has become, their magic stems from much wilder and darker times and probably doesn't consist of  _ healing  _ humans. 

It's the second night after Changkyun brought him home and despite his best efforts, Kihyun's fever is still going strong (though luckily it hasn't worsened) and he keeps jolting up in anxiety. Changkyun himself is growing more and more desperate, Jooheon's reassurances that he simply needs to wait the fever out not doing anything to calm him down, and after Kihyun jerked into fitful wakefulness again after another flood of messages from both their phones, Changkyun turns off his own in a rage and throws Kihyun's onto his couch and closes the bedroom door. 

He sticks his head out the window after another 30 minutes of coaxing Kihyun to drink some water and lay back down again, and hopes into the dark night and onto a stray bat that the fever breaks soon and Kihyun wakes up for real. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing chats is really fun


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kihyun wakes up, and they’re both kind of a mess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm, made up lore for this universe, I kinda just wrote down whatever came to my mind. This is long, but I wanted to give them time to just talk, even though my dialogue writing skills are not the best

  
  


A soft sound to his left pulls him out of his thoughts and away from the window, the heat of his bedroom (Jooheon had asked him whether his bedroom is actually human friendly, as in, not freezing cold, and Changkyun had ashamedly turned on the heater) creating an interesting contrast against the skin of his face that had gone cold in the outside air.

Wishing onto a bat is something he never did before, but apparently it worked. It's the late morning on the third day after Changkyun brought the human home, after one horrible day of fever induced nightmares and hazy mumblings, and it seems that Kihyun finally managed to break through.

A fact that both delights and terrifies the vampire. 

Kihyun's brows are beginning to knit together, his face twitching subly all over and Changkyun watches him intensely, afraid of missing even one tiny detail that could tell him how the human feels and what he should do now. Does he give him space? Or should he have written a note explaining everything and hidden himself away in the kitchen, waiting for the human to come to him? But what if he collapses? His body must be weak after all he's been through, he really shouldn't be left alone, but what if he doesn't remember Changkyun and freaks out and possibly hurts himself-

There's a sharp intake of breath from Kihyun, and out of habit Changkyun automatically breathes too, completely forgetting that he had stopped doing so two days ago. Kihyun's smell assaults his senses, his head starting to spin as a lot of sensations suddenly crash into him again (strongest of all, his  _ hunger _ ), but he viciously clamps it all down, staring at the human with even more focus and intensity than he probably should given the circumstances, but he's come so far. He's come so far keeping himself in check and it finally paid off with Kihyun waking up for real, he won't fuck it up, he won't destroy all his efforts,  _ he won't!  _

Kihyun slowly, with visibly great effort, blinks his eyes open. 

Anticipation curls in Changkyun's stomach. 

Kihyun looks exhausted and confused, only slightly turning his head to the side before looking back at the ceiling again. There's movement beneath the blanket that Changkyun assumes is his hands coming to life as well, and he can't bring himself to look away as he watches the human slowly become more awake, more aware of his surroundings, his eyes flitting around more quickly, the furrow between his brows deepening. Changkyun debates breaking the silence and making his own presence known, but he doesn't want to startle him either and he's starting to become worried, but then Kihyun sluggishly pushes himself up on his elbows. 

His face is pinched, like he's in pain ( _ duh, Changkyun, of course he's in pain),  _ and he only manages to sit up a little before he half collapses against the headboard with a huff. It prompts Changkyun forward, his arms twitching in an aborted movement, he wants to help but he probably shouldn't, not yet-

Kihyun's eyes fall on him, awkwardly hovering by the open window. 

The room is silent except for the sounds coming from outside and Kihyun's breathing, but Changkyun feels a roaring in his ears as he picks up on Kihyun's blood flowing faster, his heartbeat drumming harder. His hunger screams at him while he mentally screams right back, and he clutches the window handle hard in his hands. 

Kihyun's eyes fall from him to the window and then glance around the room, the vampire feeling relieved that they're off him for a second so he can take a second to compose himself and get a grip. 

You can do this Changkyun. Get it together. 

“Hey, can you hear me?” he asks with his softest voice possible, pitches it a little higher to sound as non-threatening as possible. The human looks incredibly confused, but alert enough, and finally settles his gaze on him again after another sweep of the room. He gives a small nod. 

“Okay. Do you remember what happened?"

Best to get it out of the way with. 

Kihyun gives him a wary look but he still seems to be mainly confused, no signs of fear or anger on his face, and Changkyun still holds onto the hope that he won't freak out like his friends (despite having all reasons to do so). 

He shakes his head, pushing himself up again to lean more fully against the headboard. Changkyun exhales softly, and changes the position of the window so it leans open, giving himself less to hide behind but he figures that cowering like that doesn't inspire the greatest trust either. 

"Okay, um, do you remember you went to a club?" A short pause, and Kihyun nods, looking unsure. "That was three days ago. You were, ah, weren't in a good condition and I took you home, and then you developed a really high fever and you only broke through it this morning, and now you're awake." 

Even to his own ears this summary of everything sounds suspicious, because why wouldn't he simply have brought him to a hospital, but Kihyun simply drops his eyes down to the blanket, squinting like that will help him remember. 

Changkyun flounders a little, becoming more and more nervous as the silence drags on, and ends up blurting out the first thing that comes to him.

"Do, do you wanna go to the bathroom first, before we talk more?" 

Kihyun raises his head a little and stares at him from beneath his messy, slightly greasy bangs (three days in bed and fever sweat and leftover product having absolutely killed whatever styling he had been going for), looks like he’s contemplating his options, and then nods again.

He still hasn’t said anything yet and it’s doing nothing to put Changkyun at ease but he nods back, his own eyes falling to his sleep clothes that he had given Kihyun, and a sudden thought comes to him.

"Tell you what," he starts, marching over to his dresser and pulling out a long sleeved shirt, sweats and socks, thinking for less than a second about offering him underwear since he didn't change Kihyun's and it's been three days after all, but discards the idea. 

He turns around and approaches near the foot of the bed, keeping a respectful distance, and deposits his clothes on the blanket somewhere near Kihyun's knees. 

The human blinks at him. 

“Here, I’ll give you some of my clothes. Forgive me for changing yours while you were unconscious, but they were dirty and I figured making you comfortable would be better. The bathroom is just next door, on the right, you can also take a shower if you want?” 

Truth be told, Changkyun isn’t sure it’s a good idea to leave Kihyun alone right now, as with every passing second his body grows more tense and his gaze sharper. But maybe the adrenaline that is undoubtedly flowing through him right now will keep him upright and won’t have him faint in the shower and smash his head in. He really doesn’t know how he could explain  _ that _ to the  **Minhyukkie-LAG** group chat. 

Kihyun wordlessly nods again, staring at the pile of clothes Changkyun had put down in front of him, and then opens his mouth.

He probably tried to speak but his throat makes a horrible croaking sound and sends him into a coughing fit, face twisted in a painful grimace that Changkyun copies with a wince. The vampire reaches for the cup of water on the nightstand and carefully holds it out to the human, still making sure to keep a respectful distance between them but his unoccupied hand twitches forward with the urge to console him in some way.

Luckily the coughing subsides quickly and Kihyun takes the cup with trembling fingers, having enough wits about him to pace himself and drink slowly, and Changkyun shifts further back again, giving him space. 

Kihyun has his eyes closed when he finishes the cup, panting softly in the quietness between them, only the early afternoon noises on a weekday filtering through the open window. Changkyun waits for him to speak again.

“Thank you,” comes a soft voice, and he feels a sudden rush of relief flood his chest as he hears Kihyun’s melodic voice for the first time without being mind-controlled or in a fever-haze. And he wants to hear so much more now. 

“Of course. Do you want to go to the bathroom? Can you stand?” 

Kihyun seems calmer after drinking water and attempting to cough up his soul, and carefully folds the blanket back to swing his legs over the edge of the bed, staring at the floor and visibly gauging whether the action will make him pass out or not. Changkyun admires his restraint. Jooheon isn’t one for resting when he should and tends to get up too quickly only to immediately topple over again, and he’s glad that Kihyun so far is being a lot more sensible. Though he doesn’t remember what actually happened and who Changkyun is.

Changkyun hopes that when he does, it won’t end ugly.

After all, it doesn’t seem like he is yet aware of his bandages or wounds… 

Kihyun slowly gets to his feet, Changkyun getting up too when the human sways a little, but it seems that so far everything is fine. Kihyun turns around to get Changkyun’s clothes, every single movement of him cautious and careful. A fond feeling rises up inside of Changkyun, and he really wants to help him, offer a steadying hand, but he is determined to keep his distance, to not do anything to make the human uncomfortable. 

The truly uncomfortable part is yet to come, after all. 

Changkyun makes sure to open the door widely and waits outside, watching Kihyun shuffle slowly and carefully after him, eyes flitting around but staying on where the bathroom is. Changkyun points to the door, says, “It’s right over there, feel free to use whatever you feel like. Call me if you need help in any way, alright?”

Kihyun nods and gives him a slight bow, catching the vampire off-guard with the sudden display of manners. But as he is half-way through the door Changkyun can’t hold himself back anymore, nerves eating away at his composure.

“Hey, um…”

Kihyun stops and gives him a questioning, slightly wary look over his shoulder.

“You said you don't remember, so, you, ah, got injured. We can talk about what happened after you freshened up, but. Don’t freak out, okay? I’ve taken care of your wounds as best as I can.”

Kihyun’s expression doesn’t give away any indication of him currently freaking out, which just makes Changkyun even more nervous. The human just replies with a quiet, “Okay”, and then slips into the room, leaving Changkyun with his fangs digging into the side of his lip and a tense calm hanging in the room. 

He really hopes Kihyun won’t freak out on him. 

**MX**

Changkyun has been pacing around his couch for the last five minutes, plugging in Kihyun's phone again to charge it, and trying not to listen to any sounds coming out of the bathroom. Kihyun is being so quiet that it's driving him up the wall, and he half wishes he'd remember on his own what happened just so he doesn't have to tell him everything. 

His treacherous ears pick up the sound of the toilet flushing, and then the faucet, but the shower doesn't turn on even after another five minutes. 

Maybe Kihyun has trouble undressing because he's in too much pain. Or maybe he is asking himself how he's supposed to shower with his entire arm bandaged. Or he found his clothes and is thinking about how to make a silent exit out of the fourth floor, Changkyun doesn't know, but his mind is running wild with scenarios and he's torn between asking if everything is alright and leaving him alone and he doesn't know what to  _ do-  _

The door slams open. 

“Hey!!” 

Changkyun’s entire body locks up as he smells blood, Kihyun’s angry but shaky voice only registering after the man stands in his living room, the couch separating them. He’s still in Changkyun’s sleep clothes, but his sleeve on his left side is rolled up and the bandage is gone, wafting the smell of blood into the room. A very much non-ideal situation.

The vampire trains his eyes on the human’s angry and scared ( _ scared? _ ) face, his entire being screaming in hunger.

“What, what is this, what’s going on,  _ who are you?!? _ ”

“I told you, you got injured, and I-”

“Injured??! I got fucking mauled by some, some  _ beast  _ or something, and you just speak of “injured”?!” 

Kihyun has a lisp he never really noticed before, becoming more pronounced the more worked up he gets and it doesn’t help Changkyun’s conflicting emotions about being fond and being a nervous mess.

“That’s why I asked you if you remember, and that we can talk about everything once you’re ready-”

“A fucking warning of some sort would’ve been nice!!”

The thing is this - Changkyun is not afraid of humans. He has nothing to be afraid of, after all. But he’s intrigued by them, fascinated, he wants to know so much since the individuality and complexity of humanity knows no limits. Especially how they show emotions in extreme situations. 

And Changkyun is drawn to anger, wrath, fury, fear, seeing the walls humans have built to keep themselves in check crumble down, watching them let go of societal standards and behaviour rules to let basic instincts take over. It’s  _ exciting. _

And Kihyun is confused, angry and scared, but demands answers, he’s shaking but stands his ground despite the paleness of his skin, his face is red and flushed and his mouth pinched to hide how unsure he is, how much not in control, but his eyes are steady, fixing Changkyun in place, eyebrows furrowing in a worried arch but he doesn’t back down. 

It’s admirable, and so foolish, and so enthralling, and he’s also so incredibly pretty and smells  _ so good-  _

“Y-you know what happened, right? You took care of me? Tell me, please tell me what’s going on…”

Kihyun trails off, anger fizzling out as his strength leaves him and he collapses against the side of the couch, which finally snaps Changkyun out of his appraisal.

_ Fuck. _

“Fuck,” he mutters out loud too.

He digs his nails harshly into his palms as Kihyun drags himself onto the couch, takes a couple steps towards him but stops, abortedly, hovering awkwardly in this self-inflicted “respectful distance” and cursing himself for not knowing what he should do to make this situation better. 

Kihyun sits himself more upright against a pile of blankets and hisses, cradling his injured arm and looking at him half-desperately. 

Changkyun hopes his own face shows compassion and none of the predatory thoughts he had a second ago.

"So, why-... w-why does my arm look like it got torn open by a wild animal?!" 

_ Because that's kinda what happened…  _

“Well… there’s really no easy way to say this…” These are totally the wrong words to start with because Kihyun’s expressions shifts to a mix between “I’m going to fucking die aren’t I” and “Just fucking tell me or I’ll kill you with my feet”. So, with a frustrated groan Changkyun plops down on his plush couch carpet, crossing his legs and digging each of his fists in between his knees, and decides that it’s better to not try and sugarcoat things.

“You remember going to a club, right?”

Kihyun nods.

“You remember the dude you went with there?”

At that he looks down and squints. 

“Y… eah, I think so, it was a blind date set up by one of my friends, and we met before at a café to get to know each other a little… and then we decided on going to this nightclub, so we separated to go home and dress up and we met again at a couple of streets before the club, to walk together… I think.”

Changkyun can feel how he is drawing blood with his nails now. Kihyun is swallowing harshly, shoulders tensing as he continues to speak.

“After that, things get a little… hazy…“ that bastard probably bit him before they went together to the club and then reveled in knowing he doomed this human, “we stood in line… I bought myself a drink at some point… I met someone, I think… and then. I don’t know. I feel like I remember feeling heavy and dazed, and there was pain too…“ While he says that Kihyun trails off and looks down at his arm with a conflicted expression. 

Changkyun waits for a moment in case Kihyun remembers more, but he feels so much rage inside of him (rage is an interesting emotion for himself, for he only rarely felt it before in his life, but ever since meeting this human it keeps flaring up inside of him, like he got personally wounded and thirsts for revenge). When Kihyun says nothing more, glancing at him warily again at his silence (and Changkyun wants to destroy that wariness so badly), he can’t hold himself back any longer.

“The dude you were with was a vampire. He injected you with his blood to take control over you, to make you his obedient human puppet. I found you and figured things out because I’m a vampire too.”

Kihyun’s eyes are immediately as big as saucers, only growing wider with every new information.

“I beat that piece of shit up and made him undo the blood magic he placed on you. But, ah…” and here his anger snuffs out and regret takes its place, “I acted really harshly and basically made him tear your arm open so he would poison himself with his own blood and I only let him go until he completely reversed the spell. And then I took you to my home because it’s my fault your arm looks like that right now, and then you developed a high fever, and it’s been three days since then and here we are now.”

Silence. 

More silence.

Changkyun hunches a little in on himself as Kihyun simply keeps staring at him in disbelief, mouth hanging open.

Pretty, is what Changkyun’s mind shamefully supplies while he waits for a reaction.

"Then… why am I here, right now, why are you taking  _ care  _ of me?" 

Changkyun cocks his head to the side, not quite knowing what to say to that, and in the blink of an eye Kihyun’s face morphs into furious bewilderment, his voice climbing higher and louder in agitation. 

"Shouldn't you, like, prey on me, weak little human that I am?! Why go through all this trouble of rescuing me and making sure I'm alright??!" 

Changkyun shifts his gaze to the side, sensing Kihyun becoming slightly hysterical as he obviously struggles with the entire situation, and him being so nice and non-threatening probably doesn't help in giving him clarity. 

“I’m not a monster like that  _ scumbag _ …” he mumbles, just barely not spitting the words out.

“But-!! Why-!?!” 

“If I wanted you dead I would’ve finished you off after the spell was broken, why would I nurse you back to health?”

“That’s what I’m asking you!!” Kihyun’s voice is shrill in hysterics and Changkyun winces because he looks so exhausted and like he should sleep for another couple of hours but he’s getting so worked up now, his entire body shaking and Changkyun doesn’t know how to calm him down.

“You tell me my blind date was a v-vampire, used me for some…  _ blood magic _ , and then you,  _ another vampire _ , were my knight in shining armor who has no such interests?! Make it make sense, please!!”

And Kihyun blurts out the “please” so desperately, looks at him with glassy, slightly bloodshot eyes, that it hurts Changkyun somewhere deep inside. He wants to ease him so bad. Wants to tell him everything is alright and nothing will hurt him anymore. Usually Jooheon wraps him up in a hug when he’s a little upset, and it feels kinda nice from time to time, and he thinks about hugging Kihyun but that’s very likely also not a good idea. 

So he goes for speaking his thoughts out loud again, to be as honest as he can be.

"It kinda pissed me off that he tried to pull off something that dishonourable in my own territory, no way am I giving him the satisfaction of letting his experiment die." 

Kihyun stares incredulously, pretty eyes almost impossibly wide open. Changkyun opts for definitely  _ not  _ pouting nor giving him the puppy eyes. 

He directs his stare somewhere over Kihyun’s shoulder. 

“I don’t have any fight with humans. I’m young, I have a couple human friends myself. If the Turned tear humanity apart, it’s one abominable thing. But we vampires are above that. There’s no need to start wars again. That sad excuse of trash doesn’t even deserve the status and power he is born with.”

Kihyun continues blinking at him. 

Changkyun gives him a small, hesitant half-smile.

“You’re safe with me, I promise. I was thinking about bringing you to a hospital, but explaining everything might’ve been even more difficult then. You are free to leave whenever you like, I’m not holding you prisoner or anything. Though I’d feel better if I could offer you some actual food and more water before you leave?” 

Kihyun blinks slowly at him.

And then he closes his eyes and slides off the couch with a groan, all the fight draining out of him, holding his injured arm still and nestling in the curve of the couch and Changkyun’s fluffy carpet. Changkyun watches him, slightly amused but now wary himself.

“... that was way too much new stuff to absorb, all of this feels like a fever dream,” Kihyun speaks to the ceiling, his head resting on a cushion with his neck exposed.

Changkyun’s treacherous eyes hone in on the soft, _ vulnerable _ skin, the slightly protruding vein. 

_ Changkyun, look away, just look away. _

“You doing somewhat okay?” he asks, forcing his eyes to his carpet and seeing Kihyun’s bare feet curling in the plush, and  _ why  _ is he feeling fond over something like that now. 

“Somewhat,” Kihyun mumbles, huffing a little. “There’s a  _ lot _ of stuff that I don't get but I’m not sure I want to know everything now… or ever, to be honest… Or if I even could, at the moment.”

“That’s understandable.”

The human hums. 

“Say, um…” Kihyun doesn’t change his position and throws him a hesitant look from the corner of his eyes.

“I’m Changkyun.”

“Changkyun…” the name rolls wonderfully from his tongue and Changkyun suppresses a shiver. “Changkyun, um, could you, maybe bandage my arm up again? Ripping off the bandage earlier in my panic probably wasn’t my brightest idea, haha…”

There’s absolutely no humour in Kihyun’s laugh, and Changkyun only notices now how tightly his jaw is clenched and how his lips are pinched in a pained frown.

“Shit, of course, just wait there,” he says and jumps up, hurriedly flitting into the bathroom to get bandages and painkillers.

It occurs to him while he is kneeling down next to Kihyun (the closest he’s been to him ever since he woke up) that even though the human is tensing up and watching his every move, accepting the painkillers without a word, that he also lets him, the vampire, bandage his open wound. For his own sanity he tries his hardest to not read too much into that, and feels a little proud when he manages to scoot back to his respectful distance without having to force himself and Kihyun gives him an overall grateful look. 

For a little while they stay like that without saying anything, both sitting on the fluffy carpet and leaning against the couch, Kihyun cradling his arm and his face shifting through a million emotions. Changkyun tries not to stare at him but it’s difficult now that the realization fully set in that the pretty human is awake and capable of conversation and his voice sounds like what a full meal in the fullmoon feels like. Like Changkyun is at peace just listening to him speak.

Kihyun turns his head to look at him.

“Um, I saw my clothes and my stuff in your bathroom, but, I didn’t see my phone anywhere…? 

“Oh, yeah, wait-”

Changkyun twists his body to dig through the side of the couch that isn't engulfed by a mountain of blankets but sheets of lyrics and science books that must’ve tumbled down when Kihyun collapsed earlier, to triumphantly hold up his phone with a whispered "gotcha". 

"Here," he says as he unplugs it to hand it to him, the same moment another notification pops up on screen, "your phone has been going off nonstop for the past days and while I tried to placate your friends as best as I could they still wouldn't stop spamming you, or well, me, with messages, so I turned it on silent. But as far as I know they haven't sent out any search parties so as long as you tell them yourself now that you're in no imminent danger, they should hopefully calm down."

Kihyun just wordlessly stares as more and more notifications pop up with no sound, brows furrowed. 

"How did you crack the code?" 

"There wasn't one." 

Changkyun sees him tense his jaw and squeeze the phone in his hand. The unspoken conclusion hangs between them. 

The vampire had made Kihyun remove the code, most likely. 

Again something in Changkyun's chest clenches at the troubled expression on Kihyun's face, the urge to hug him growing even stronger but he forcefully stamps it down, feeling it wouldn't be appreciated anyway. 

“Um, sorry for using your phone in the first place, but I thought explaining that you’re not dead was better than ignoring everything…”

Kihyun just nods wordlessly.

He slowly runs out of ideas as to what he could do to make Kihyun feel better, so he rummages through the mess on his couch again and produces several flyers and brochures, sprinkling them at Kihyun's feet as he gets up on his own. 

"Tell you what, choose something to eat, alright? I could only feed you water and tea and soup these past days and you must be starving. Speaking of, what tea do you like?" 

It takes a moment for Kihyun to stop staring at his still lit up screen to survey the options, looking slightly taken aback. 

"Are we gonna… order food?" 

"Yup, 'course." 

Another beat of silence, and Kihyun directs his eyes upwards to him. 

"You're not, like, living in a super fancy shmancy part of town, right?" 

A smile tugs at the corners of Changkyun’s mouth. 

"The apartment might look big to you but it's just spacious and I'm not good at decorating. I don't have any need for luxury, this is more than enough."

Kihyun frowns and looks around the living room properly, for the first time ever since he woke up. Changkyun decides to leave him alone for a bit and start on making tea, already pulling up the site for his usual delivery service. 

"Any tea is fine… but do you have coffee?" 

This time he gives him a real, small smile, and walks into the direction of his kitchen.

“I’ll see what I can find. I’ll be right back.”

**MX**

Making coffee is one of the first things Jooheon taught him when they started to hang out more and the human stopped being so jumpy around him, which makes sense since at that time Jooheon had worked at a café. Changkyun doesn’t own a fancy machine like Jooheon worked with, but over the years his kitchen became a storage box for a lot of different kinds and brands of coffee, and he’s gone through quite the variety of cheap and not so cheap coffee makers as well. Hyunwoo has developed a liking too, and he said he never had something like it when he was still human. Changkyun himself never really paid attention to the beverage, but then Wooki asked him to invest in some coffee machines for his employees, which had an almost positively exploding success, and so coffee became a permanent part of his life. 

Balancing the two freshly brewed cups and some milk and sugar on a tray (because he might’ve worked a couple months together with Jooheon at the coffee shop until his friend quit, and he picked up a few things) he takes a deep breath to gather his composure before heading back to Kihyun. 

So far, things are going fine, and he hopes with something besides water to drink and soon some actual food in his stomach Kihyun will feel better as well.

Walking back into the living room he sees Kihyun try to take a selfie with his injured arm, quickly dropping it to change hands with a painful expression.

He definitely didn’t expect to see that.

“What… are you doing?”

Kihyun flinches and lowers the phone with red ears, glancing at him and then quickly away again, tapping out messages.

“My friends wanted a proof picture that I’m actually fine and not brainwashed… Actually they want to video call but I’m really not in the mood, so they insist on a selfie.”

Changkyun aaaaahs in understanding and puts the tray down on the carpet in front of him, sitting down on the opposite site so they face each other. 

“What did you tell them?” 

Kihyun eyes the coffee intensely so Changkyun carefully nudges the tray over to him.

“That I just woke up, that I was attacked, that the guy that was texting them is taking care of me right now, and that I’m fine. Mostly,” he adds, holding the handle of his cup like it is something precious and deeply inhales with closed eyes. Changkyun chuckles weakly, ignoring the flutter in his chest at Kihyun’s blissful expression. 

“They’re probably not accepting all that so easily, right?”

The human hums in agreement, taking a sip. Changkyun can’t look away from the bob of his throat, the small, satisfied sigh zinging through him like lightning. Quickly he takes his own cup and chugs half of it, the burning hot liquid successfully recentering his focus as it slides down his insides without leaving damage. 

“Well, they want proof that I’m alive, so…”

Changkyun hums himself. 

A new, slightly awkward silence envelopes them. Kihyun puts his cup down, fiddles with his phone but staring at the ground, nervous restlessness rolling off him in waves. It's making Changkyun nervous as well. 

"You can continue, y'know, taking a selfie. Sorry if I interrupted you." 

The fiddling stops and Kihyun hums again, opens his mouth to say something but closes it again, pressing his lips together, and that's when Changkyun gets it. 

"Ah, you're probably feeling uncomfortable, right? With me here. Okay, look, I'm gonna face this way, yeah? And I'm not gonna look, so, you can reassure your friends."

Without waiting for a reaction he spins around on his butt, balancing his cup of coffee so nothing spills, and dutifully stares towards his kitchen. 

He feels a little bit silly, but he can also understand that Kihyun must feel extremely uncomfortable and awkward, having to take a selfie in front of a stranger, so he's gonna try and make him feel as safe and comfortable as possible, even if just for a simple photo. 

A little bit of shuffling around behind him, and just as he takes a sip Kihyun softly says, "Done" and he smoothly turns around again, acting as if nothing happened. Kihyun throws him a quick look but he seems a bit more relaxed now. 

They leisurely drink their coffee, Kihyun typing away and Changkyun pouring milk into his already empty cup, just so he has something to do. 

“By the way, my friends call you “I.M” and scrolling up I saw that’s the name you gave them, but why?” 

“Well, they also didn’t give me their real names,” is the first thing Changkyun says, lifting his shoulders a little when Kihyun looks at him with an unreadable expression. “Which was good of them, since they don’t know whether I am a good guy, but I could’ve also looked through your phone to find out, if I wanted to.” 

Changkyun’s biting down hard on his tongue because he doesn’t sound very trusting right now and Kihyun’s face tells him as much. 

“Um, I.M is my stage name, and the name under which I operate my club and territory. And, I don’t know, I’m used to introducing myself with I.M these days, so it just slipped out?”

Despite being furrowed, Kihyun raises the edge of one eyebrow at him, and that shouldn’t look as attractive as it is. 

“They were testing my patience and I just wanted them to leave me alone for five seconds?”

The human snorts a little at that, seemingly amused by his tries to save this conversation, but he looks less tense than he did when he asked in the first place, so Changkyun counts it as a win.

All of a sudden their midday is interrupted by excessive pinging coming from Kihyun's phone. 

"Oh, yeah, just now they demanded I put my phone on loud again," Kihyun sheepishly explains, gulping down his coffee and almost burrowing his face into the cup as his phone keeps going off. 

"They're super worried because I look so exhausted and sick, and they won't believe that I'm fine unless they see me in person," he continues mumbling into the cup, only his eyes showing over the rim though they're almost completely covered by his wild fringe, and he looks so soft and small that Changkyun is tempted to chuck the damn phone out of the window to ease him somewhat. 

Without thinking about it he puts his cup down and reaches over to pull a blanket from the couch and hands it to Kihyun, withstanding the urge to wrap it around his shoulders. 

"Tell you what, you're gonna make your video call, and I'm going to search for my phone because my friends surely are about to bite my head off for not replying since you woke up. Alright?" 

Kihyun looks at him with gratitude and, Changkyun notes with happiness, he’s calmer now too. He gets up to search for his phone, remembering he had put it on silent because one time Hyunwoo sent him a message and the notification sound woke Kihyun up and that hadn't been pretty. 

He left his phone in the bedroom, the notification light accusingly blinking at him, and with a wry smile he sinks down on the carpeted floor and opens the groupchat with Jooheon and Hyunwoo.

He woke up   
And he’s fine 

**JooBro** **  
** fUckInG FINALLY IM CHANGKYUN   
OH HE’S FINE WELL ISN’T THAT NICE TO KNOW

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** Changkyun you can’t just spam us for an entire day about how you’re super worried about your human but refuse to let us help   
And then just cut us off

Well I just told you   
Also no way am I going to text you guys when he’s finally conscious and coherent

**JooBro** **  
** Dick

I have one, yes

**JooBro** **  
** Not for much longer if this keeps up

C’mon I was taking care of him the entire time, what could have happened

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** Pretty sure he means your replying habits, Changkyun

I knowww I’m sorry   
I had put my phone on silent bc one time the ringtone woke him up and he was all panicky   
Didn’t want a repeat of that

**JooBro** **  
** Elhae’s gonna kill you bro

Already took care of that    
Still gotta fix a lot of things though    
And yes I’m also going to apologize in person 

**JooBro** **  
** Oh HE gets an apology

Jooo c’moooonn   
If it makes you happy, he kinda freaked out on me earlier   
Yelled at me too

**JooBro** **  
** That very much doesn’t make me happy you idiot

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** Why did he freak out?

What do you think   
He barely remembers anything which is good   
But he knows now that I am a vamp and that asshole was a vamp too   
So he panicked bc one vamp tried to kill him and the other is feeding him soup and fluffing his pillow   
It’s kinda a lot for him to take in   
But he calmed down

**JooBro** **  
** Well you are quite the nice vamp tbh

A lot of naturals are nice   
It’s the Turned that spread chaos and fear   
No offense Hyunwoo-hyung

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** No worries Changkyunnie

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** What are you going to do with your human now though?

Okay, first, he’s not my human

**JooBro** **  
** Sure

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** Sure

Y’all   
He’s currently reassuring his friends that he is really alright   
He has some fiercely protective friends which is nice and all   
But damn they are exhausting to deal with   
Also we’re gonna order food when he’s done   
And then we’ll see what he wants to do

**JooBro** **  
** Not gonna convince him to stay?

I’m still a complete stranger bro, why should I also be a creep

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** Well you saved him from certain death, I’m sure he’s grateful for that

I asked him if he remembers anything and he went as white as a sheet   
I’d rather make sure he goes back to his daily life than make him stay and force him to confront what happened

**JooBro** **  
** You really care for him, huh

I’m not an asshole, thanks

**JooBro** **  
** I know, I know, I’m done being mad at you   
Only because you’re being really thoughtful and considerate of him

You could never stay mad at me for long, bro xoxo

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** Don’t push it now, Changkyun

**JooBro** **  
** Please NEVER type xoxo again

Stingy

**JooBro** **  
** Save it for my fellow human

Dude   
He looks like he would shatter into a thousand pieces if I touched him

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** You’re thinking about touching him, huh

HYUNG!!!   
WTF!!!!!!   
STOP!!!!

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** ㅎㅎㅎ   
Okay, sorry, I’ll stop

**JooBro** **  
** Hyunwoo-hyung typed ㅎㅎㅎ

He typed ㅎㅎㅎ

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** ㅎㅎㅎ

**JooBro** **  
** My heart 

Alright guys I’m going to check up on him   
I’m also going to keep my phone with me and on vibration, happy?   
Check back with you later

**Hyunwoo-bear-hyung** **  
** Tell us if you need help

**JooBro** **  
** Btw what’s the guy’s name?   
Changkyun?   
Changkyun   
Im Changkyun    
Infuriating

He pockets his phone and stretches, listening whether Kihyun is still chatting, but apparently he’s done. Rolling to his feet, he makes sure he makes some kind of noise, so that he hopefully won’t startle him.

Kihyun’s leaning sideways against the couch, one shoulder pressing into the cushions, and browses through the food brochures Changkyun left for him. His phone is on the carpet next to him, pinging more quietly than before, but still constantly. The vampire suppresses an exasperated smile.

“Everything alright?”

Kihyun still flinches slightly at his voice but he doesn’t look scared at least, just surprised. 

“Yeah… they’re still worried and stuff but not so much anymore. I told them I need food first before I’m dealing anymore with them, haha…” 

The small laughter is barely audible but it puts a smile on Changkyun’s face, that Kihyun doesn’t see. Approaching the couch he sinks down on the carpet again, the respectful distance between them, putting his own phone next to Kihyun’s.

“My friends have calmed down too, luckily. So have you decided on something to eat?"

“Well… do you know what I can eat already? I mean, I lost quite some blood,” Kihyun throws him a questioning look, nodding to himself when Changkyun answers with a deliberately casual “yeah”, “and I was knocked out for three days, so, um… what would be good…?”

“Red meat. But, basically, whatever you feel like. We can order whatever speaks to you right now.”

Kihyun looks down at the brochures again, lips pouting in concentration and his brows furrowed. Changkyun stares for a long moment before snapping out of it, biting the side of his tongue with one fang. 

The human looks back at him in what he could only describe as puppy eyes.

“Do you like chicken?”

Changkyun’s heart gives one intense thump against his ribcage. 

“We can order chicken if you want chicken.”

“You’re not going to eat with me? Ah-” It seems that the moment Kihyun said it he remembered who he is talking to, “-you’re not eating cause you’re a vampire, right?”

Changkyun leans into the couch and reaches for his phone again.

“Well, kinda? I can eat human food, that’s no problem, I just have no need for it? I do like it though. And in case you’d feel awkward just eating by yourself, we can order more stuff and l’ll help you finish it all, no problem.”

Kihyun’s brows are still furrowed.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I haven’t had chicken in what feels like forever, so let’s order some. Do you want something else too? Something light, some side dishes, anything?”

They discuss what to order for a while, Changkyun at one point shoving his phone into Kihyun’s hands and telling him he should decide, and it almost feels surreal that not too long ago this guy was screaming at him and had also laid in his bed recovering from almost being drained of all his blood. 

His cart soon sports a bunch of different kinds of chicken and a couple side dishes, Kihyun sheepishly handing him the phone back. Changkyun simply hums in approval at his choices and sends the order.

“I can pay for it-”

“Not gonna happen.”

“But-”

“See it as an apology for the wound on your arm, that one’s one me. And keeping you here for three days and worrying your friends sick.”

Kihyun looks like he wants to argue more, but ultimately shuts his mouth and leans back against the couch, wrapping more of the blanket around himself.

Changkyun receives the confirmation that their food is arriving soon, and goes back into the kitchen to make them more coffee after checking in with Kihyun and getting an enthusiastic nod back.

He comes back to the slowly familiar becoming scene of Kihyun frowning at his phone, and once again contemplates throwing the thing out of the window. He won’t, it would ruin every process he made, but it is such a tempting thought if it would result in Kihyun finally fully relaxing. 

Kihyun accepts the new cup of coffee with a quiet “thanks”, grimacing slightly when Changkyun throws a look at his pinging phone.

"My friends, they're-" 

Even knowing it’s them, Changkyun couldn't hold back a sigh. 

Out of nowhere a small smile pulls at Kihyun's lips though, momentarily putting all his thoughts on hold.

"I scrolled through the chat, you already know how they can be. They mean well and are the best people I've ever known, but right now, it's, well…" 

"Exhausting," Changkyun mumbles at the same time as Kihyun says it, still staring at the smile that hadn't gone away, his heart for some reason skipping a beat and not slowing down again. 

"Yeah." 

Kihyun scrolls a bit on his phone and then holds the screen in front of Changkyun's face. 

Guys, I promise you I'm fine    
Also he's nice, alright 

**scamMIN** **  
** Stockholm syndrome set in after three days 

**zeroWon** **  
** We've lost him 

I've been asleep for most of the time, it's impossible for that to already set in

**muscle-hyung** **  
** Kihyubdnie    
Pleade come bakc otnus    
I miss yih 

Hoseok-hyung please don't tell me you're crying 

**zeroWon** **  
** He is

**scamMIN** **  
** See what you did Kihyun 

Why are you blaming me??? 

**scamMIN** **  
** Frolicking with a boy    
Not coming home in days

I was fucking attacked you ass

**zeroWon** **  
** And you're still staying at that guy's place 

I woke up one hour ago after three days of recovering what do you want me to do    
I'm starving and he offered to order food for us    
Also I'm free to leave whenever I want   
That I'm texting you guys should be enough proof that I'm safe and sound and he's trustworthy enough 

**scamMIN** **  
** Get his address in some way Ki    
He wouldn't tell us where you are and what's his real name 

**muscle-hyung** **  
** What if he poisons your food Kihyunnie 

We're ORDERING hyung 

**muscle-hyung** **  
** What if he orders it with poison 

Hyung tf 

**zeroWon** **  
** Your "I.M" is still a suspicious individual, he could order from some kind of accomplice and tell them to mess with the food 

Guys omg 

**scamMIN** **  
** He could be giving you freedom right now to give you that false sense of security and to rile you up against us

Ffs   
I'll switch on my location after we've eaten   
Until then I'll keep you updated alright?   
I appreciate your worry guys, I really do, but trust me, okay?    
I'm safe here 

Changkyun lets his head fall back, groaning loudly. Kihyun's friends are the most annoying humans he ever had to deal with and he hadn't even met them.

(“I’m safe here” is already playing on loop in his mind. He tries to dispel it. It’s a useless effort.)

The phone pings again and he looks back at it with a glare. 

Kihyun's staring at him with his mouth hanging open, eyes wide. 

"…?" Changkyun furrows his eyebrows at him. 

"Y-you, you…" the human starts to stutter, pointing at him in a decidedly not polite manner and Changkyun grows more confused. 

"You, you, have, fangs, actual,  _ fangs. _ " 

The vampire blinks at him in surprise. 

"Surely you must've noticed them before now?" 

Kihyun furiously shakes his head, eyes almost popping out of his head. 

His phone keeps going off but it hangs forgotten in his slack hands. They stare at each other for a couple moments, Changkyun resisting the urge to squirm under Kihyun’s intense stare. Never before did a human manage to ruffle his proverbial feathers so. His lips twist into a small frown.

“Well… does it bother you, or something?” 

To his surprise, Kihyun swallows, no,  _ gulps  _ loudly into the awkward silence between them, and then shakes his head again.  _ Well. _ What a cute surprise.

The fluttering in his chest from seeing Kihyun genuinely smile for the first time is instantly replaced by heat welling up inside of him. 

Changkyun half-smiles at him, making sure to show the beginnings of his fangs on one side, and can’t deny the pleased spark running down his spine when Kihyun’s wide, pretty eyes fall immediately to his white teeth. 

It’s very flattering, and suddenly he wants nothing more than to tease him, fluster him, explore how many more reactions he can pull out of him, wants to know how deep this  _ interest  _ runs-- 

The doorbell rings and jerks both of them back into the living room, Kihyun flushing bright red and Changkyun cursing under his breath, scrambling to his feet. 

_ Dammit!,  _ he berates himself internally, ears burning,  _ you can’t just go and flirt with a clearly traumatized human who had almost been killed three days ago just because they might have a thing for fangs, there’s time and space for these things Im Changkyun and right now is wrong!  _

He might’ve opened the door a bit too roughly for just receiving a delivery of chicken and chicken and oh, yes, chicken, but sue him, his mind keeps replaying the laser focus of pretty eyes on his goddamn fangs and he’s weak for appreciation.

The delivery girl stares at him with a wary expression, so he tries to present himself as a normal, calm and collected human that is totally not suppressing anything right now.

He pays, bows in thanks, and shuts the door with a solid click, standing in the entrance way for a while longer to scramble the last of his control together. 

It feels like he’s slowly growing hysterical himself.

Carrying the food back into the living room, Kihyun immediately perks up and blinks wide open eyes at him. Like a puppy. Changkyun's heart is doing somersaults in his chest. It doesn’t help that his face and ears are still bright red. Changkyun could cry.

He distracts himself by pushing the low coffee table in front of Kihyun, not having the heart to make him stand up so that they can eat in the kitchen because he looks too cozy in his couch corner with the blanket around him.

“I, I’m gonna get some water for us, you can already start sorting through all this… chicken,” he says, trying not to show that he’s basically a whole mess by now.

“Y-yeah, sounds good, thanks,” Kihyun replies, sounding like he isn’t any more composed than the vampire which doesn’t quite help in calming either of them down it seems, so Changkyun escapes to the kitchen and searches for the big pitcher he totally didn’t stole from his very own club, just to stall.

Stalling doesn’t take forever though and he’s soon back with Kihyun, food covering the entire table, and a lot of water at the ready in case they get extraordinarily thirsty.

He’s indefinitely glad that no one is there to witness him being a whole goddamn fool. 

Luckily the awkwardness in the air dissipates as soon as Kihyun nibbles on some side dishes and looks so heart-clenchingly delighted that Changkyun feels as though his undead soul is dripping warm sunshine. And then the human furiously blows on a piece of chicken to cool it down and stuffs it into his mouth and his cheeks bulge out and Changkyun could cry from whiplash and fondness.

He’s so, so so so fucked. 

To battle the sob rising up in his throat he picks up a steaming hot piece himself and unceremoniously bites into it, the heat licking at his palate and scorching along his tongue. Such an interesting sensation and successful distraction from everything. 

He finishes his piece in gusto and goes for another one, but it’s only when he opens his bowl of soup and freely takes a sip that he notices Kihyun staring at him in a distinctly unnerved manner. 

Having those eyes concentrated on him is slowly scraping away at his sanity.

“Uhm,” he says intelligently, slightly holding his plastic bowl higher to hide behind the steam rising from it.

“How… wouldn’t you… isn’t your mouth terribly burned now?” 

Changkyun has a silent aah moment for himself and sheepishly takes another sip.

“No?” 

“You’re fine.”

“Yeah.”

“That soup is almost boiling hot still.”

“You’re right.”

“And you just drank it like it’s nothing.”

“Hm-hm.”

“ _ How. _ ”

As understandable as Kihyun’s reaction is, Changkyun would rather prefer he eat instead of asking him questions, but it seems he won’t let this go until he gets an answer. It makes him sigh, but smile. 

“Temperatures don’t affect my body, that’s basically it.”

Kihyun frowns.

“So you don’t feel them?”

“No, I do feel them, but, hmm, it just doesn’t do anything? Like, I feel how hot the soup is and like, it feels very different from letting it cool down a bit, but it doesn’t burn me? It never did, really.”

Kihyun squints his eyes at him as he’s processing that information, absently eating another piece of chicken, and that already makes Changkyun not mind the questioning at all anymore. Though he does lean a little back when Kihyun’s gaze doesn’t falter.

"Is it like some kind of super fast healing?" 

"Uh, no, I don't think so." Thinking about how his injuries definitely took a small while to heal, it can't be that. 

“Hmm. But I guess that's why your apartment is so cold, huh.”

Changkyun blanches a little.

“Are you cold?? Are you okay? You should’ve said something, I would’ve turned on the heater and-”

“Changkyun, Changkyun, I’m fine, relax, I have the blanket,” Kihyun interrupts him, the corners of his mouth tugging up, and Changkyun reluctantly relaxes again, pouting a little bit. 

Then it hits him that Kihyun just called him by his name again and his entire being feels like the hot soup in his hand.

Silence falls between them again, Kihyun looking at the table seemingly lost in thought, chopsticks hovering in the air. Changkyun doesn’t really come up with a better way of explaining things, so he simply finishes his soup. 

Kihyun is just staring at all of the food on the table. He has only eaten a couple of pieces of chicken himself, and it’s like the information about Changkyun’s body not being susceptible to temperatures has killed his appetite. Changkyun begins to worriedly frown at him.

After a short moment of silence and staring, Kihyun puts his chopsticks down with a troubled expression on his face.

“Y'know… I don’t remember much… but I think I do remember going into that alley and meeting you there... It felt like I was underwater, everything was hazy and blurry and I couldn’t form any thought for the life of me. Like, I must’ve looked drunk or stoned as fuck, right?”

Changkyun puts his own chopsticks down, not looking at him, reliving the moment in his mind and feeling fury rise in his chest again. He concentrates on keeping his breathing steady.

“Kinda, yeah.”

“Then why did you take the time to talk to me? Surely wasted humans at your club aren't a rarity. Could you like, feel the other vampire on me or something?”

Just the mention of that  _ trash  _ has him gritting his teeth.

“I… your eyes.”

“… my eyes?”

“They were dull. Empty. Lifeless, and that set off every single alarm bell, so to speak. I kept talking to you because I needed to know how far gone you were, if I could find out who did this to you, if there was a chance of saving you, you know.”

Changkyun's still not looking at Kihyun and the human is not saying anything either. 

“Beside… when I was scoping out my own club that evening, I saw you in the queue. So when you appeared in that alley, I also recognized you. One pays attention to coincidences.”

Kihyun hums in reply, shifting a little in place, and finally Changkyun looks at him from beneath his fringe, checking how he’s feeling.

He’s met with a pretty pair of calculating eyes sizing him up.

“Why did you remember me?”

There’s a note of… playfulness in Kihyun’s voice that throws the vampire off kilter. Kihyun is leaning back against the couch, slightly hunched in on himself but his eyes are glinting in the light from the windows, his face showing an almost anticipating expression. 

_ Is he…? No way…  _

“Well, your hair, for one.” Changkyun forces his voice to be calm and steady.

The corners of Kihyun’s mouth pull up into a small smile.

“Just my hair?”

_ Is he actually flirting back right now.  _

_ No. Way. _

He doesn’t know what possesses him to say what he is thinking right now, going against all of his inner dialogue, but his self-control is already stretched thin as it is and something about Kihyun’s calmness and the focus in his eyes makes him bold, makes him want to see where this will go.

“Of course I couldn’t forget those painted on leather pants on your  _ nice  _ legs either, if that’s what you’re baiting for.”

Kihyun’s mouth tugs up into a cheeky smile, arching his eyebrows at him. 

Changkyun has to consciously remind himself  _ again  _ that this human is in urgent need of professional medical care and he  _ can’t  _ test out whether that jawline is sharp enough to cut his tongue. 

But then Kihyun breaks out into a wide smile and huffs a laugh, eyes crinkling into crescents, and lets his head flop backwards onto the couch cushion.

“Well, I sure hope I attracted some eyes, I did dress up for this date.”

Changkyun fully turns towards him but leans back onto his arms, not risking having his hands free at the moment. 

“Believe me, you did a splendid job dressing up for total scum that doesn’t deserve even looking at you.”

Before he can throw himself out of the window for just blurting out stuff like this  _ again _ , Kihyun rolls his head to the side and gives him a warm smile.

“Why, thank you, mister vampire.”

_ Don’t jump the human that almost got eaten three days ago,  _ don’t _ , Im Changkyun. _

In the span of five minutes Kihyun has shown him more expressions than Changkyun ever thought him capable of and he tries to focus on the sudden wish to see more of the variety that is Yoo Kihyun (instead of how those lips stretch into an attractive smirk and show sharp human canines and how those immaculate eyebrows arching up makes him feel a certain way). 

Kihyun is watching him watch him, curious glint still in his eyes with his lips pulled very slightly into a teasing smile, but otherwise he looks soft, relaxed, and  _ safe.  _

It's as that thought is starting to eat away at Changkyun's sanity, that Kihyun shifts again, and half buries his face into his arm on the couch, exhaling deliberately slow. Changkyun hears, and senses his heart rate suddenly picking up. 

"Hey, Kihyun, hey, what's going on? Talk to me?"

Kihyun releases a shuddering breath, his tensed shoulders shaking a little.

Alarmed worry overtakes all of Changkyun’s senses, everything within him needing to eliminate whatever threat there is, whatever has upset Kihyun. 

(In the back of his mind his own voice questions him about this fierce protective instinct he developed for Kihyun.) 

"It's just- thinking back on what happened-" 

Each of his words is thick with emotions, voice sounding like it’d break any second now.

“Everything about this is crazy, that this happened is crazy, that right now I’m eating chicken with a freaking vampire is crazy and-”

He cuts himself off, voice trembling. 

"I'm just so fucking glad right now that I'm alive." 

Kihyun laughs into his arm, sounding forcefully cheerful but so,  _ so  _ pained and confused and overwhelmed. 

It's gut-wrenching. 

And Changkyun wants to hug him, comfort him  _ so bad _ , but doesn’t trust himself to contain his urges if he comes too close to him. 

So he shifts to the head of the couch, still that respectful distance between them but  _ closer,  _ and mirrors Kihyun's pose. 

"That’s right, you're alive, Kihyun,” he says quietly, his own voice coming out in that timbre that Jooheon calls comforting, “You made it out of there alive and kicking."

Kihyun has his face buried in his sleeve, and only his eyebrows and pretty eyes are visible through his messy hair, looking at him with a shine in them Changkyun painfully ignores so that his hands will stay where they are right now. 

"And it's not only because I saved you, no, it's because you fought the entire time. You never gave up, you struggled as much as you could against him, and that's the reason you can sit in my living room right now making jokes. You didn't let him consume you, you didn't let him eat away at your self. He got far, but never reached what is essentially  _ you.  _ And even the most powerful vampire can't give you back parts of your soul that have been destroyed like that. You're  _ strong,  _ Kihyun _ , _ the strongest human I've ever met."

Kihyun's eyes have widened again, impossibly rounder than before. 

Changkyun knows his ears are probably melting off right now with how hot they feel, but he refuses to give into the urge to make a joke. He is serious, and sincere, and wants, no, needs Kihyun to know that. 

Kihyun's face looks as red as Changkyun's ears feel, and after a few seconds he buries himself back into his arm. 

"You-, why-...!” 

Changkyun patiently waits for him to organize his words.

“You're so sincere-...  _ Why." _

The vampire lets his head plop sideways on the couch, never taking his eyes off the human.

“Is it because you’re bored, or you think I’m hot, or some revenge thing, why, why are you helping me,  _ why are you so nice to me?!” _

Kihyun looks half-desperately at him again, red strands of matted hair falling across his forehead. And Changkyun knows his own eyes are too honest, too caring, exposing himself to this human in a way that could potentially be dangerous later on, but he knows he’s already in too deep now anyway.

“Because you didn’t deserve all that you’ve gone through there, Kihyun.” 

Those pretty eyes are filled with tears and then Kihyun’s face is once again buried in his arm.

And Changkyun patiently waits for him. 

It takes a while for Kihyun to compose himself, Changkyun quietly sitting by his side with his eyes closed. He listens to him breathe, quick and sharp with suppressed sobs and deep breaths to calm himself down, the rushing of his blood almost putting the vampire in a meditative state. Oddly enough it’s slowly become soothing instead of tempting, though maybe it’s only because every pump of his heart is a reminder to Changkyun that Kihyun is alive and free of any cursed magic influences. 

He does open his eyes when he senses Kihyun shifting, and watches him look up with red rimmed eyes and a strangely shy expression on his face. Changkyun gives him a small, loop-sided smile.

“Feeling better?”

“Hmm-hm,” Kihyun nods, pushing himself away from the couch into a more upright position, a hand coming up to sheepishly rub at the back of his head. It’s adorable. He’s adorable. Changkyun rightens himself too from his slouched position and asks, 

“Wanna continue eating?”

“Yeah…” Kihyun says, half-laughing at the table still filled with food. “Though it’s probably all cold by now, huh.”

“I can warm it up again if you like?”

“No,” comes the unexpected strong response, “no, this is fine, it’s okay. Everything’s okay.” 

It sounds like a mantra to himself, Jooheon has been doing something similar when he was still afraid of Changkyun and Hyunwoo. The vampire has learned to not comment on it, and if it helps him compose himself and gather strength, the last thing he wants is to ruin it.

They continue eating, although Kihyun appears to be a little fidgety, drinking his cold soup with a slight grimace but not complaining, looking at the carpet as if it holds the secret to all of his problems. Changkyun absentmindedly picks up his own chopsticks, distracted by Kihyun’s behaviour, when the human surprises him yet again, now staring holes into a side dish.

"Alright, you know what, I, I think I'm more mentally stable now to hear more about what even was going on three days ago." 

Changkyun stops with a piece of chicken halfway in his mouth. 

"A' you su-" he starts to say, dislodging his fangs from the meat, Kihyun interrupting him. 

“You said you made him reverse the spell by making him drink his own blood from my arm.”

“That’s right.”

“Be-because it is poisonous to him?” 

“I needed to find a way to force him to undo his spell. Ripping him apart wouldn’t have accomplished anything, and I refuse to use any blood magic, so he had to do it on his own, and poison is a pretty effective way to make someone do something you want.”

Kihyun doesn’t look as pertubed by him casually speaking of torture as Changykun expected. 

“Right… well, ignoring all that blood magic… stuff, I'm already confused about the fact that you even have blood, but… why is your own blood poison to you?" 

Isn’t that the question of all questions. 

"To be totally honest with you, I don't know. There had been studies, among vampires, for centuries, but I'm not really that familiar with them.” 

“Studies?” 

“Don’t sound so shocked,” Changkyun tells him with a wry smile, Kihyun finally looking up at him again, “we’re still intelligent beings, you know? If it comes down to it, humans and vampires aren’t that different, and of course we’d do studies about ourselves, just like humans do about themselves.”

“That is… something I’m sure not many people have ever considered.” Kihyun looks like he has a small aaah moment himself. 

“You, you said you’re young, so, how old are you?”

“24.”

“…  _ what. _ ”

Changkyun chuckles. “I’m 24 years old, a pure vampire born in 1996.”

Kihyun stares at him like he had grown a second head.

“You’re  _ younger  _ than me?!?”

“Uh, apparently? You’re older?”

Kihyun nods, mutely, with wide eyes. 

“I mean, it’s not like age plays a huge role for me? I might look like an adult in your eyes but in vampire years I might as well still be a baby. Though since there aren’t any wars anymore in the modern age, a lot of vampire babies are being born again. So there’s slowly but surely a new generation of vampires coming. Err, not that it’s something dangerous or anything.”

Kihyun looks like he has a particularly hard time processing everything. Changkyun finds himself growing slightly nervous again, and all he can think of doing is keep talking. 

“So, about the blood thing, there’s one theory I like. It says that technically, vampirism is a curse? Or something like that? We're dead but also not, by nature we're very much unnatural, so, our blood is unnatural too. And since we're "cursed", we can't drink our own blood, the very thing that keeps us undead alive. Kinda poetic, one could say."

Kihyun stares at him. 

Now Changkyun is the one fidgeting.

"I… I’d be tempted to call it tragic, but it's not really that. You just need to make sure you don't drink it, and you'll be fine, right?" 

"Yep."

"Huh…" After saying that the human falls deep into thought again, lips forming seemingly unconsciously a pout. Is there even one thing about this man that doesn’t threaten to drive Changkyun mad.

“What are Turned? You’ve mentioned them a couple times by now.”

“Turned are humans that have been turned into vampires, but they are not vampires. They’re instinct-controlled trash with not a smidgen of self-control who are basically responsible for vampires having such a bad reputation all over history. They’re the one who have started the wars too.”

Kihyun reaches for a glass of water, a look on his face that screams he has no idea how to react to any of this. So Changkyun tells him a little more. 

"By the way, Turned don't have blood at all." 

Kihyun almost spits out his water. 

" _ What?!"  _

"It's kinda because they are doubly cursed? They get turned by cursed beings who suck all of their blood. They become Turned, modeled after their murderers, and doomed to forever seek something to fill those empty veins of them. Us natural born just search for something to battle the poison, I guess? But Turned are basically empty shells, that's why they're a lot more feral than us. They desperately want blood and we can't provide and animals look different but humans, humans fit perfectly because we all are basically the same. At least, that's another theory."

“Okay, wait, wait wait wait, this is, this is a lot, uh…” Kihyun holds out his hand like a barrier, the other clutching his glass of water for dear life before chugging it and letting himself fall against the couch again. 

“Wow…” he mumbles to himself, staring at the ceiling.

Suddenly Changkyun is reminded of something.

“Say, it is true you’ve never met a vampire before?”

There isn’t a response at first, Kihyun looking deeply lost in thought, but then he tilts his head to the side to look at him.

“Huh?”

“When I found you in that alley, you said you've never met a vampire before, and you seemed to not take it well either, but all in all, you're holding up pretty well right now.”

Saying that earns him a scoff and he can’t help but grin. Kihyun’s eyes immediately drop to his fangs, quickly flitting away while he clenches his jaw. 

“Well, of course you hear rumours everywhere, and there’s too much political talk about vampires and those Turned you mentioned that you can’t really dismiss it as an urban myth anymore, but yeah, I’ve never met one before. But it doesn’t really feel like I’ve just learned about something earth-shattering, you know.”

Changkyun hums.

"But you, well," Kihyun gives him a slightly quizzical look, "you're so nice to me and helpful, and so far pretty harmless, so I don’t even feel afraid of you." 

Changkyun chuckles weakly at that admission. He just told him about how he essentially tortured another vampire but he calls him harmless. 

He’s contemplating teasing him about this, when Kihyun’s phone goes off again.

“Wow, there’s a sound I hadn’t missed,” Changkyun can’t help but grumble as Kihyun scrambles to get to it. 

“Ah, my friends are angrily worrying again because I still haven’t switched on my location.”

Looking at the clock it indeed has been quite some time since they ordered food, already early afternoon is upon them and Kihyun hadn’t even eaten that much.

“You do need to go to a hospital, after all…”

“Yeah,” Kihyun laughs sheepishly, “I really should. And I should probably meet with them before then as well, to placate them, hah…” 

They figure out a place for Kihyun and his friends to meet, not too far from Changkyun’s apartment but also far enough that they can’t retrace where their injured friend came from and kick in Changkyun’s door. Kihyun isn’t even denying the possibility of that happening. 

When he tries to get up to get changed though he stumbles into the couch again, and Changkyun ends up guiding him into the bathroom with a plate of side dishes and a cup of tea that he tells him to eat before getting ready to leave, because Changkyun refuses to let him go by himself if he isn’t steady enough on his own two feet. Kihyun grumbles a little about someone younger than him taking care of him but doesn't fight it. 

Changkyun goes into his bedroom to search for some warm pants and a thick jacket he can lend the human, ignoring the voice in his head that whispers that this is a perfect plot to see him again. He won't do anything Kihyun doesn't want, if he chooses to keep the clothes (not that Changkyun necessarily needs them anyway, he just likes how they look), Changkyun won't hunt him down for it. 

He goes back into the bathroom to present his findings, shushing all protests of “You don’t have to!” and “I can’t possibly!” until Kihyun finally caves and decides on a pair of black cargo pants and a white fluffy jacket. He also luckily managed to clear his plate and looks a lot healthier already, the warm tea prettily flushing his face. Changkyun leaves him alone so he can get dressed, busying himself with gathering all the left-over food together and gritting his teeth against the vertigo he feels. Sitting down was a good way to ignore that he himself is absolutely drained and frayed at the edges, and Kihyun finally leaving brings a bitter-sweet feeling of relief.

It had to happen at one point though. Changkyun is no doctor, human or otherwise, and Kihyun desperately needs one. And he needs to see his friends as well. He might feel comfortable now but it could be that his memories of three days ago become clearer and it’s probably the best to be around people he knows if that happens. At least, that was one chapter in one of Changkyun’s books, about mental and emotional comfort. Jooheon tried to explain the concept to him and Hyunwoo a couple of times by now. It’s not that they don’t understand, but more that they can’t really relate? Changkyun is more than fine on his own, and Hyunwoo is always up and around doing who knows what. 

Though, having Kihyun here did make him feel funny inside. Like he wouldn’t mind him being around all the time. Like he wouldn’t mind telling him about his life and experiences and, struggles? Does he have struggles? 

Changkyun is broken out of his confusion by Kihyun exiting the bathroom, his injured arm carefully tucked away in one fluffy pocket. He looks so fluffy in Changkyun’s jacket.

_ Mine. _

_ No, Changkyun. _

“Alright then, I guess I tell them where to meet and I’ll be on my way then…”

“Y-yeah.”

_ Don’t stutter, keep it together for the last stretch. _

Changkyun steels himself and properly looks at the human he had played nurse for as best as he could for the last few days. 

“Are you sure you don’t need me to walk with you? Will you truly be fine on your own?”

Kihyun laughs a little nervously, smile genuine but shaky.

“Truth be told, I  _ am  _ a little scared of fainting before arriving at the meeting place. I feel a little fluttery, standing up like this. But, it’s gonna be okay, I’m sure.”

Changkyun returns his smile, though he feels wired up, like he’s about to run somewhere real fast. His hands shake a little, fingers arching and he hides them behind his back. 

“Um, text me if you want when you’ve arrived safely?” he suddenly blurts out, biting harshly down on his tongue as soon as the words are out of his mouth.

Those pretty eyes widen again, cheeks flushing red, and then,

“Oh! Yeah, totally, I’ll do that!!” 

“Cool!”

They stare at each other with flushed faces, Changkyun’s self-control teetering on the edges, when he notices Kihyun doesn’t have his old clothes with him. 

“Oh, you, your old clothes, wait let me get them for you, and, uhm,” and he scrambles to the couch, pulling out a pen and paper to write down his number and shoves it at Kihyun. “Here, be right back.” 

He runs into this bedroom to get a bag and flits over into the bathroom to pack up Kihyun’s things, mumbling “calm down calm down calm down” over and over while he feels his ears melting off the side of his head. ”It’s just one human, Changkyun, get a grip!”

Rushing back to said human he finds Kihyun once again fidgeting in place, face red when he accepts the bag with a stammering “th-thanks!” But he still fidgets, his nervousness badly rubbing off on Changkyun, and then he shoves the piece of paper back at him.

"I'm sorry, I really can't read your scrawl, it all looks the same, just, here take mine instead.”

“O-oh, sorry, um, thanks, ah-”

Both of them are just standing in the entrance area of Changykun’s apartment, flustered and spluttering like teenagers in those high school movies, and it’s once again Kihyun’s phone breaking the awkwardness. 

“Ah, they’re almost there and lowkey panicking again, so I should really get going.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Kihyun is about to bend down to get to his shoes but Changkyun beats him to it, almost banging his knees into the ground with how fast he kneels to help him out. There’s a strangled sound coming from above, and his vertigo almost makes him lose his senses for a second. With more focus than required he ties Kihyun’s shoelaces, feeling how his fingers start to cramp into claws as his instinct is screaming at him to get food. He brutally stomps it down, getting back on his feet to properly send Kihyun off and almost not seeing him through the dark spots in his vision.

“Well, I’m off then.”

“Be careful, Kihyun.”

Wide eyes surrounded by flushed skin.

“Thank you for everything… Changkyun.” 

The shiver running down his spine almost has him topple over. 

And then Kihyun is gone, with a small wave and a grateful smile, taking one careful step after another into the direction of the elevator. 

**MX**

Closing the door is painful. Not bolting after Kihyun and pulling him back into his apartment and sinking his teeth into this neck is painful. Knowing his bedroom and bathroom and couch smell like Kihyun now is painful. 

His hunger gnawing at his insides is the most painful thing of all.

He’s a little impressed with himself that he held out so long. That he held onto his self-control even through Kihyun’s flirting, and the human didn’t show once that he possibly suspects something. 

Locking the door is like the final nail in his proverbial coffin, and his knees buckle, his body crashing against the door and collapsing onto the ground.

Changkyun chuckles, somewhat desperately. He’s such a fucking mess, all because he was enchanted by a pretty human with leather clad hips. Hyunwoo and Jooheon will never let him live it down.

Speaking of, he needs their help now. Urgently.

The vampire ends up crawling back into his living room, pawing for his phone and curling up on the floor when cramps take over his entire body. This is bad. Too bad. He’s such a fool for neglecting himself for so long and believing it won’t have drastic consequences. 

He’s only 24, for fuck’s sake.

He deals the last number in his call history, vision swimming with black dots.

“Changkyun-ah? Is everything alright?”

“Hyung,” he rasps, gnashing his fangs together at the voice of the Turned. “Hyung, it’s bad.”   
“Did something happen with your human? Did you lose control? Do you need-”

“He’s fine,” he spits, voice ugly and dripping as for a moment his feral instincts take over, “I’m not an animal, I’m not some  _ savage! _ ”

“… you sound hungry.”

“ _ No shit, I’m starving! _ ”

“Do you need me to bring you some blood?”

“ _ What do you think-  _ argh!” Changkyun’s entire body convulses in pain, snapping him out of it but leaving him weak and exhausted, mouth dry and aching for blood.

“Changkyun-ah?!”

“Shit, Hyunwoo-hyung, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-!”

“Shh, Changkyunnie, it’s fine,” Hyunwoo soothes, not sounding offended in the least, “I’ll come over with some blood, okay? Do you need something else?”

“Hyung…” Changkyun feels tears gather in his eyes, pain and gratitude a confusing mix in his mind. “We, we need Jooheon, he needs to change my sheets and air out the apartment, I can’t- but I’ll attack him if he comes here, no, I  _ can’t-! _ ”

“… then we’ll go hunting.”

“It’s the middle of the  _ day! _ ” The vampire laments pathetically. 

“It’s gonna be fine. Trust me. I’ll call Jooheon, he’ll take care of everything, and I’ll be right over.”   
“Thank you, hyung…”

“… so, the human.”

“He’s gone,” Changkyun says. And at that he truly starts to cry, even though the reason for it eludes him, images of a slowly growing warm, bright smile dancing in his mind, a smile that lights up an entire face as he were the sun himself, painfully burning through him and he thinks he wouldn't mind dissolving into dust if the cause was that smile, vision completely blacking out.

“He’s gone. He’s safe.” 

(“KIHYUN!!!” 

That’s the greeting he gets, all three of his friends yelling at him from across the street as soon as they spot him. And it’s the normal he is used to, even though it is tinged in desperation and relief as they run towards him, completely ignoring traffic like the  _ idiots  _ they are, and Kihyun feels so happy to see them again that his legs promptly give out in Hoseok’s embrace.

That of course results in more panicked shouting of his name and Hyungwon ushering them all in the direction of his car, him securely piggybacked on their muscly friend’s back.

And while he didn’t really feel threatened or in danger at Changkyun’s place, it feels like he can only now  _ finally  _ fully relax again.

“Kihyunnie, how are you holding up? You don’t look as pale as earlier anymore, but…”

Hoseok’s worry is heart-warming and gut-wrenching at the same time, Minhyuk pulling him in between them on the back seat while Hyungwon starts the car. The situation is so bizarre, how just a short while ago he had been in the apartment of a vampire who rescued him from blood magic and who had ordered a bunch of chicken just for him. 

“Ki, what happened.” Minhyuk demands, not even bothering to pose it as a question anymore, his hand on his shoulder firm but slightly shaking. 

And Kihyun is simply too exhausted to beat around the bush.

“I was attacked by a bad vampire, and was saved by a good one.”

The reaction is priceless.

“ _ YOU WHAT!?!”  _

Kihyun laughs, laughs so hard he jostles his arms and it hurts even through the painkillers but he simply can’t stop. Hyungwon is cursing as he tries to keep his focus on the road while Hoseok is almost shaking out of his skin with visible confusion.

Minhyuk pulls him close, ghosting his fingers over his fluffy jacket covering his injured arm, and presses a kiss to the side of his head.

“Ki, what the actual fuck,” he murmurs.

All Kihyun says before he drifts off to sleep:

“I’m never going on a blind date again, guys.”) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s done!  
> Originally this was supposed to go into a completely different direction, with a morally very gray Changkyun, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. And then suddenly worldbuilding happened and Changkyun turned out to be this nice guy and I’m quite satisfied with it in the end.   
> There are one or two wips for sequels, but, we’ll see.  
> If you enjoyed this fic, I’m happy. 
> 
> Feel free to not succumb to creators' call of checking out their messy social accounts.  
> [tumblr](https://ki-chang.tumblr.com)  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/nkm284)

**Author's Note:**

> The fighting scene is something I’m half proud of and half cringe at this since this is my first time writing something like this. The villain is a typical comic book one and I’m both sorry and not


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